Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, for bringing forward this important Bill. It makes a contribution to an important aspect of the area of what we are now seeing, namely the increasing privatisation and commodification of housing.

After Fianna Fáil crashed the housing market in the late noughties - we all experienced the devastation of the associated banking crash - most people would have thought it should never be allowed near housing again. It was kept away from it for some time but it did not make an awful lot of difference to the approach taken by Government. What we saw from Fine Gael over the last ten or 12 years was a repeat of the mistakes of the past. We saw the commodification of housing, priority being given to the profit margins in housing and little regard paid to the need for housing to be provided as a basic service and a basic responsibility on the part of Government to ensure that housing was provided in adequate numbers and was affordable. Instead of that, thanks to former Deputy, Michael Noonan, over the last ten or so years Fine Gael introduced tax breaks to encourage vulture funds and REITs to come into the market in order to bring in international capital. We are paying a huge price for that. That was followed by the introduction of HAP, which sought to create demand at a time when demand was low. That was followed in 2015 by the then Minister, Deputy Kelly, reducing the standards of apartments, making them cheaper to build and increasing the profit for developers. That was followed by the lifting of height limits by the then Minister, Deputy Coveney. The former Minister Eoghan Murphy then further reduced standards and gave us the fast-track strategic development housing system, which squeezed the public out of the planning process. All of these policies were designed for profiteering within the housing market and happened at the direct expense of ordinary people trying to access homes. Little regard is paid to people on average incomes who aspire to own their own homes. It seems that is no longer a realistic aspiration as long as we have Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in charge of housing policy.

It was quite surprising yesterday when my colleague, Deputy Catherine Murphy, raised with the Taoiseach the matter of investment funds swooping in and buying up entire apartment blocks and, increasingly, housing estates and second-hand housing. It is a licence to print money for them and the Taoiseach seemed to be surprised that it was taking place at such a level. He was doubly surprised when Deputy Catherine Murphy pointed out the tendency for local authorities to engage in this practice of entering long leases with these investment funds. The Taoiseach expressed surprise and responded by saying that it is an unacceptable practice.

Yes it is an unacceptable practice but it has been facilitated by his Government's housing policy, a policy that was inherited from Fine Gael and continued faithfully by Fianna Fáil in partnership with Fine Gael. I often wonder just what is the Green Party's position in all of this. We hear very little from it, other than tonight's attempt by the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, to somehow justify the practice of long leasing.

It is a licence to print money as a return for 25 years is guaranteed. The investor cannot lose. The people who lose, of course, are the taxpayers who pick up the very substantial tab for this. The Taoiseach also said he would work with us on implementing the Bill and its provisions. It is quite clear from the responses of the two Ministers of State this evening that they have no intention of doing that. They are talking about considering it in the context of a review of housing policy. It is clear we are getting more of the same and that the Government cannot be trusted. The Minister and the Taoiseach, who made those points yesterday, simply cannot be trusted.

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