Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is nothing but a pure political stroke. It is a last-minute amendment shoehorning in a tax break for vulture funds, cuckoo funds or investment funds, whatever you want to call them, that are now incentivised to bulk-buy homes and get a tax break if they lease them back to the local authorities.

The Minister knows only too well that, in May, members of the public were outraged when they saw what unfolded when a cuckoo fund snapped up 135 homes in a newly built estate in Maynooth under the noses of struggling homebuyers who had worked hard for many years to save a deposit to own their own home. They were outraged even more when they found out that this fund, like all the other investment funds in the housing market, was being facilitated by the Government. It is paying no corporation tax on its rental profits, no capital gains tax and minimal stamp duty. In response to this avalanche of outrage from the public, the Government scrambled to give the appearance that it was taking action, hoping the public would buy this. In reality, it was a con job because the Government introduced a stamp duty rate that was too low in the first instance. It allowed investment funds to bulk-buy apartments and to be completely exempt from the higher rate of stamp duty, despite the facts that six out of every seven homes built in Dublin city in 2019 were, indeed, apartments and that the officials in the Department called for the stamp duty surcharge to apply to apartments, warning that by having no extra stamp duty on the bulk purchase of apartments, the individual home purchaser is potentially driven out of the market. That is exactly what is happening. The Government paid no heed to that advice and put the interests of the funds above the interests of homebuyers.

With this amendment, the Minister brazenly goes a step further. He is giving investment funds a tax break when they snap up homes from under the noses of struggling homebuyers if they lease them to local authorities, with the latter and taxpayers picking up the bill and paying the rents to the investment funds for 25 years. The funds do not pay a cent in corporation tax on the rent that is paid to them. The tax arrangements have been facilitated by the Government, including the Minister for Finance. You could not make it up. Not only will the legislation allow funds to continue to push struggling homebuyers out of the market but it will also deliver poor value for money for the taxpayer. This is not just my view or that of Sinn Féin; it is also the view of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

I listened to the comments made by the Taoiseach yesterday and again today on Leaders' Questions in response to me and Deputy McDonald. It is clear that he simply does not know what he is talking about. Investment funds are not just outbidding prospective homeowners because they are also outbidding approved housing bodies by as much as €80,000 per year. They can do so because the Government has introduced sweetheart tax deals that allow them that type of firepower. It is doubling down on these with tonight's sneaky amendment. Sinn Féin will not stand for this, and the Dáil should not stand for it. We will oppose this amendment. Unless the Minister scraps it, we will oppose the legislation. What the Government is doing should not be facilitated by this House because it will have long-term consequences for young and old people who are locked out of the market.

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