Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tonight, people in my constituency of Kildare North are reeling. The raid on houses by global wealth funds has left them stunned. As Deputy Ó Broin pointed out, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has gone back on what was set out in the Fianna Fáil manifesto. Instead of clipping wings, as promised, he has given wings to the wealth funds. This is the Red Bull Government. A total of 135 homes were scooped out of 170 in a housing development in my constituency. Fianna Fáil promised to ring-fence a miserly 30% of homes for ordinary buyers and workers who keep our economy going. In fact, the Minister gifted the investors 79% of the homes in Mullen Park. He might as well have walked into that development and put up a big sign saying "No mortgage holders need apply". Did we ever think we would see the day that people would need a war fund to buy a house, not in Monte Carlo but in Maynooth in County Kildare? This is the Minister's doing. His legacy is a housing market that is mutant and its priorities perverse. The full pamper package is provided for investors but workers can go to hell. Not even the bank of mammy and daddy can save them now. They must be good little tenants and pay the mortgage for the wealth fund investors.

I commend Deputies Doherty and Ó Broin on their tireless work in seeking to call a halt to the sweet deals and pamper packages. Our Private Members' motion would see the cuckoo funds hit with a stamp duty surcharge for raiding residential property. It would put a smacht on their activities and ensure they cannot push people out of homes and install profit in their place. A home is not an option or luxury for people. A home is essential. Having a roof over our head is one of our most basic needs. We must have a radical rethink of our official attitude to housing whereby a few privileged and pampered investors are deciding where many hard-working and unpampered young people can live. Now is the time for big government. A house is a home, not an investment. Big government will save young people and couples from falling through the cracks of this awful Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party.

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