Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Government is tying itself up in knots trying to explain the screeching U-turns on the cuckoo funds. Yesterday, the Taoiseach said this capitulation to cuckoo funds had been signalled when the stamp duty increase was announced in May. However, when Deputy Donohoe announced this measure, he said three bodies would be exempt: local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Housing Agency. If he had signalled he was about to exempt cuckoo funds from a measure designed to target cuckoo funds, it certainly would have stood out and caused a row on the floor of this House.

The Taoiseach also told us 2,400 social homes are due to be leased this year and that they could be in jeopardy if the stamp duty surcharge were not waived. The cuckoo funds are not content with paying virtually no tax on their profits or the extraordinarily lucrative 25-year contracts and secure investments, which have been described by some as Government bonds on steroids. No, the State has to sweeten the deal further and exempt them from this stamp duty increase if it wants them to play ball. The revelation 2,400 lease deals are about to be done with cuckoo funds for 2021 was also a big surprise. Last year 1,440 social homes were delivered through that lease programme. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage now tells us the number of lease deals in the pipeline is substantially more than the total amount leased for last year, despite everyone in Government agreeing this is terrible value for money. The Minister might address that point. What does in the pipeline mean? Are there contracts in place?

When Paschal Donohoe announced this measure in May, he said there would be a three-month transition period for the execution of binding contracts which had been entered into but not completed, prior to the commencement of the resolution. Were we to understand this is additional to those ones in binding contracts? If it was the case they were all in binding contracts, there would have been no need for that resolution last night.

Perhaps the Minister could answer a simple question. How many lease deals do we expect in 2021? What is the ballpark? There is no transparency around this. Councillors only hear at local authority level after the deal is done. When I raised this during Leaders' Questions some months ago, I was looked at as though I was making it up and there were only tiny numbers, when it is exactly what I thought it was at the time. Will the Minister tell us what is in the pipeline? Is this over and above those which are already in existing contracts? Will the Minister give a ballpark for this year and does he accept this is awful value for public money?

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