Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister and I know that investment funds are currently spending billions of euro in the Irish property market. They are hoovering up properties.

We also know that workers and their families are locked out of the market and do not stand a chance when some big fund can just buy properties in bulk and offer 30% over the asking price. It is obscene that big funds pay hardly any tax and are making huge profits at the expense of Irish people. And why is this happening? It is because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have prioritised the profits of investment funds and developers. Let the market decide; let it run amok with no controls. And who are the victims? It is young couples who come into our advice centres and young workers, nurses, gardaí, council workers, civil servants and factory workers.

The Government has made its priorities clear and they are skewed, as are all the others, towards a wealthy elite. The Government's measures and plans only ever push up the cost of homes, meaning that many workers or families will be trapped in the rental market. If this continues, homelessness will increase as more and more workers' incomes flow into rents. Rents and house prices climb and do serious harm to lone parents and others who are disproportionately represented among the homeless and hidden homeless population.

Does anyone seriously believe that the same parties that created the mess will somehow fix it with a magic wand? I do not believe that anyone trusts Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael to solve the housing problems. Every so-called plan we have seen from this and previous Governments has been just another developer's charter. Sinn Féin would end tax breaks for big investment funds and ensure that local authorities and approved housing bodies are funded to buy some of these developments before they come on to the market in order to make them available to ordinary people to rent and buy at affordable prices. The housing situation in Ireland is completely dysfunctional. Sinn Féin is committed to building social and affordable housing, implementing rent controls and putting a month's rent back in renters' pockets through a tax credit. It is time for others to be given a chance to do things differently.

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