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

Last Wednesday night, the Government voted again to ensure cuckoo funds continue to pay no tax and outbid workers and families for homes they desperately need. Those funds were back in the news at the weekend. The first story was about a Dutch outfit paying €110 million to hoover up 280 family homes in Dublin. The CEO of that outfit said it could own the houses for 50 years and is not selling them. In 50 years, the grandchildren of those struggling to buy a house today will be looking for a home of their own. Another story concerns a couple who cannot buy a house living in the house of a family member, which is a common story, even though they had saved a substantial deposit. They are infuriated that the Government continues to support cuckoo funds at the expense of ordinary home buyers.

Here is another story. Bartra, the private developer awarded the contract for O'Devaney Gardens, is threatening to sell 500 family homes to a cuckoo fund unless the Government dances to its tune. Bartra was given the valuable public land at O'Devaney Gardens effectively for free.

Not content with that sweetheart deal, and a huge subsidy from the public purse, it now wants more. It demands that the Government buy these homes at inflated prices of more than €400,000, or it says it will sell to a fund, which in turn will fleece people with rip-off rents. The developer is effectively trying to blackmail the taxpayer and is using the powerful presence of cuckoo funds as leverage. This is not its first act of bad faith; far from it. There have been huge delays in building these homes. It has challenged planning decisions and mounted a judicial review. It is now brazenly attempting to hold the Taoiseach's Government to ransom.

This would not be happening if the Government had provided Dublin City Council with the financial support needed to develop these homes back in 2018. That proposal would have seen the delivery of 800 homes that ordinary people could actually afford to rent or buy. That is what we in Sinn Féin and others called for. Had the Government listened to us, O'Devaney Gardens would be at an advanced stage of construction, ready for families to move in next year. Instead, this deal, which the Taoiseach has championed to the hilt, means that these homes have not been built. When the first homes eventually come on stream, Bartra will slap a price tag of €400,000 on them, which will be way beyond the reach of ordinary workers and families.

Cinnteoidh talamh poiblí a dtugtar saor in aisce do na forbróirí chun tithe a thógáil atá róchostasach i gcomhair daoine go leanfaidh géarchéim tithíochta ar aghaidh. Is de bharr pholasaí an Rialtais go bhfuil forbróirí ag bagairt tithe teaghlaigh a dhíol le ciste cuaiche a mbrúnn cíosanna ríchostasacha.

The fiasco at O'Devaney Gardens is a mess of the Government's own making. The Government was warned at the time and again that this was a terrible deal for tenants, homeowners and taxpayers. The Government was warned that sidelining the local authority and gifting public land to private developers was a really bad idea. Does the Taoiseach now accept those facts? What is his response to Bartra and its attempts to blackmail the taxpayer? What does he say now to Bartra? Will he now rein in these cuckoo funds by ending the sweetheart tax deals that his Government has afforded to it?

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