Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I do not think it is an accident that the housing policy of this Government and many previous Governments has not solved the housing crisis and has not addressed the needs of ordinary people, but instead has lined the pockets of developers, speculators and investment funds. I put it to the Taoiseach that is because housing policy has been captured by those interests. We have seen many revelations about how they win on both sides of the equation. The State, through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, invests in the investment funds. They get to the buy up the properties and then lease them back to the councils.

I will give another example, which is HAP. Some 40% of the HAP budget goes to corporate landlords or investment funds. It was €128 million in 2019. Corporate landlords are responsible for 4% of total private tenancies but 40% of the HAP budget goes into the hands of these corporate landlords. This is effectively a gold mine. They get a guaranteed rent from the State, plus a built-in rent increase of 4% every year because of how the supposed rent control legislation is written. It is an even better deal for them than the social housing leases currently being advertised to investment funds. Does the Taoiseach agree that a crucial part of addressing this is to introduce proper rent controls, which do not include this sort of rent increase?

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