Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

They say there are five stages of grief. It seems to me there are also five stages of Fine Gael in government: first, introduce a red carpet and a tax regime for cuckoo funds; second, invest in those same cuckoo funds; third, suffer amnesia and forget anything has happened; fourth, have a political wobble as you see your support in a key target voting market being wiped out; and, fifth, rush through half measures to seek cover. By God, there is a locked-out generation in this country at the moment. This is probably the first time in hundreds of years that we have had a complete generation that is economically worse off than the generation before. For hundreds of years, each generation improved economically but that is reversing for the first time now. This has not happened by accident. The dysfunction that exists in the market is a direct result of Fine Gael policies. I have had this discussion with the Minister numerous times and I had it with his predecessor, Michael Noonan. The red carpet was rolled out for vulture funds and REITs. The playing field was tilted in favour of big international investors in an effort literally to put the floor under prices in the housing market and to improve the balance sheets of the banks in this country. The problem, however, is that it has ended up at this stage creating a new tenant class that has not been seen since the time of the landlords. The truth of the matter is that unless the Government reverses those competitive advantages that each of these international investors has over families seeking to put a roof over the heads of their children, this situation will continue.

What level of economic modelling has the Minister done to indicate what result will come in the market from an increase in the stamp duty rate that is included in this financial resolution? Has he done any economic modelling whatsoever? This could go a number of ways. These same international investors could have a big enough yield to be able to deal with the increase in stamp duty. This could have no effect at all on their purchasing decisions. Their business model may not change as a result of this. Alternatively, they could still purchase those same units and pass the cost change on to the renter, as often happens when stamp duties increase. I would like the Minister to answer that question in his closing remarks. What economic modelling has been done in respect of this increase in the stamp duty rate?

See this speech in context