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

At a time of crisis, when so many people struggle to put a roof over their head, they deserve much more than the kind of incoherent waffle we are hearing from the Taoiseach as Head of Government. It is really quite disgraceful. I have the Minister's amendment here. It is written down, black on white, what the Government is proposing to do. It is proposing to incentivise these funds to buy up houses, lock, stock and barrel, pricing ordinary buyers out of the market because they cannot compete with these big funds. The funds will be incentivised to buy up all of these homes and then lease them back to local councils. That is what it says in the amendment.

By addition, the Government has also allowed these funds to have a free hand in respect of apartment blocks.

I have set out for the Taoiseach the reality that a significant proportion of new builds in this city and beyond are apartment blocks. Far from assisting those who are in the middle of this housing crisis, he is making things worse.

See this speech in context