Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Let the House record that we are in the grip of a housing crisis, which is a social crisis and a social catastrophe for people up and down the length of this State. The Head of Government, the Taoiseach, instead of setting out what he and his Government propose to do to put a stop to the gallop of these investment funds that are deepening the crisis and causing so much hardship, reaches for bluff and bluster.

Of course, builders have a role in building houses; no great prizes for the Taoiseach for figuring that out. We need a Government that is prepared to lead. We are in a crisis. Investment funds are snapping up family homes from under the noses of people who require secure accommodation. They are enabled and facilitated in that by tax arrangements over which the Government presides, and by a failure on the part of the Government to provide the very supply to which the Taoiseach refers.

I do not want a blasé dismissal of my question. I want to know when the Taoiseach will legislate to ensure that this bulk buying ceases. When will he end cushy tax arrangements? When will we see action?

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