Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael present themselves as parties of the free market. In many ways both parties have skewed the housing market significantly. A young family looking to buy a house needs to compete with an institution that has a tax regime not comparable to the young family's. It may pay no tax, but certainly pays a very small amount compared with the family it is competing against. It is getting an interest rate on international markets of 0% or a little above compared with what the young family must pay here. Those institutions are also basing their investments on the rental income that will be achieved. The Government is standing over a market that is stacked against young families being able to purchase homes at the moment.

In response to a parliamentary question this week I found out that the number of social houses being leased by local authorities has doubled in just three years. Last year, €100 million was spent on leasing social housing from institutions. When this is added to housing assistance payment, HAP, hundreds of millions of euro are going into the pockets of private developers when the State could be building those homes for these people and getting a rental income from it. It is wrong.

See this speech in context