Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not, frankly. I cannot comment on any individual case; I am not privy to private negotiations and nor should I be. I cannot confirm either whether the reports are 100% accurate. What I will and can say very clearly regards the measures that this Government has introduced.

We have committed to introducing a form of owner-occupier guarantee - this has been done - to enable local authorities to specify the proportion of houses and duplexes in a development for owner-occupiers. This is intended to build on the existing higher rate stamp duty measures that the Minister for Finance introduced and restrictions on planning permissions introduced in May 2021 that I brought forward by way of section 28 guidelines on the regulation of commercial institutional investment in housing. The current guidelines ensure new own-door homes and duplex units in housing developments can no longer be purchased in bulk by institutional investors in a manner that causes displacement of individual purchasers or social and affordable housing, including cost rental properties. It is really important that people understand this.

Analysis and data - rather than reports - suggest that with the changes made by me, the Minister for Finance and this Government in 2021 on the purchase of single family residential units, the proportion of such purchases fell from 11% of residential deals in 2020 to 2% in 2021. This is coupled with the fact that more than 30% of the 46,000 homes purchased in 2021 were bought by first-time buyers.

I am satisfied the Government's actions to increase home ownership for individuals and families are starting to work.

See this speech in context