Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important, once again, to be aware of the facts. We know from the most recent statistics produced that approximately 10% of new homes in Ireland were bought by investment funds. Some 20% were bought by the State, through local authorities and affordable housing bodies. I have said previously we also need to take into account that first-time buyers, and people who want to upgrade or downsize, are sometimes not just competing with investment funds but with the State. In fact, they are more likely to be competing with the State than with investment funds. We need to bear that in mind. The figure is 10% for the year gone by but it will be less this year and in future years because of the action we took, which was to impose a very high stamp duty rate on any fund that buys more than ten houses anywhere in Ireland in a given year. They cannot buy ten in every estate; it is ten anywhere in Ireland in any one year. We believe that will significantly reduce, or eliminate, the practice of investment funds buying up new houses.

As we explained at the time, we took a decision not to apply that to apartments, having taken advice widely and having heard, in particular, from builders who build apartments, who very clearly said to us that if we did this we would see reduced supply. Builders are simply not in a position to build apartments if they do not have the assurance of a forward buyer. They cannot get the finance to build in those circumstances. As we said at the time, this is something we will keep under review. If we have to alter that policy, we are open to doing so, but we do not want to do anything that is counterproductive and only results in fewer apartments being built. If fewer apartments are built, that means less places for people to rent and, therefore, rents go up for everyone else. That is something we obviously want to avoid.

By the way, I totally agree with the Deputy's earlier statement. I agree that apartments are homes too. I have lived in an apartment for 14 years. I know that apartments are homes too. It might be the case that around the world, including Ireland, the vast majority of people in apartments are renting but there are those of us who are owner-occupiers as well. I happen to be one of them. It is why I was surprised to hear Senator Lynn Boylan, on two occasions, refer to people who live in apartments as "transients". Those of us who live in apartments are not transients. Senator Boylan should not have said that. Perhaps she did not mean it, but she should withdraw it. I am pretty sure that if anyone in Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael referred to apartment livers as "transients", we would be attacked and savaged online. Senator Boylan is a Sinn Féin representative and she got away with it. I hope the Deputy does not stand over that remark and will address it in his reply.

As a Government, we are trying to help. We are in a housing crisis but we are trying to help renters. The Deputy knows the decision we took in the last few days, which was a necessary change of policy, to link rents to the consumer price index and inflation. This is so people who are now renting will not see their rent increase by any more than the rate of inflation, probably 1% or 2%, or maybe even less in the coming years. We will leave that in place until rents fall and become more affordable again.

We are helping home buyers as well, particularly through the help-to-buy scheme. Tens of thousands of people have been helped to get their deposit through the help-to-buy scheme, something the Deputy's party has consistently opposed.

See this speech in context