Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputies Pearse Doherty, Ó Broin and others in Sinn Féin on bringing this issue to the forefront of the political debate in recent months and years. What people saw in the past couple of weeks with REITs buying whole housing estates is a reflection of what is happening up and down the country. Many people have contacted me who have family members trying to buy homes. A man in County Leitrim contacted me the other day. He has two sons who he paid for to go through college. When one of his children was sick when they were young, he could not get a medical card and had to pay for the treatment. He subsequently had to buy health insurance. Throughout all of his life he has paid. Now his two sons, educated with good jobs, have no hope of affording houses. They would need salaries of between €100,000 and €120,000 per annum to buy a house in Dublin.

At the same time, the Government's policies are driving this whole agenda of what it calls the professionalising of the rental sector. What that means is making the rental sector something which will make maximum profit for large investment companies. That is totally at odds with what the ordinary people of this country want. It is time the Minister and the Government copped on to that. People are seeing what the Minister is doing. He is not working for the ordinary people of this country. Rather, he is working for the big investors and those with the inside track. That needs to end now.

The reality for many people is that they just simply cannot afford to live in this country. That is being brought home to so many. We have a situation whereby people work and save to buy homes for themselves and future generations of their families but the Government closes that off for them. This is down to the Government's policies, which come from the playbooks of Thatcher and Reagan. This is not an accident or a consequence the Government did not foresee. The Government's policy is driven towards making the whole housing sector a commodity which can be bought and sold in order that people will be slaves to it for the rest of their lives. That needs to end.

The Minister needs to support this motion and ensure that he acts on this. Yesterday evening, I watched the "Claire Byrne Live" show with the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, fumbling his way through and coming up with answers nobody believed. It is time the Government copped on. People are seeing through the Minister in the context of what he is at. It is time he stated clearly that he will drive these vultures out of the country. Michael Noonan invited them in. It is time for the Minister to send them home.

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