Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The facts flatly contradict what the Minister is proposing because we know from the BNP Paribas report that a quarter of all purchases last year were by non-households. The Minister is right that some of those were approved housing bodies and local authorities but the vast bulk of them were institutional investors. They are now not just buying up new homes through forward purchase agreements but snapping up significant numbers of second-hand homes from which housing assistance payment, HAP, and rental accommodation scheme, RAS, tenants have been evicted and then leasing them back to the local authorities at extortionate prices.

Of course I meet everybody. How else can I do my job properly? I cannot do it by not meeting people. The difference between the meetings the Minister has and the ones I have is that I meet these organisations to make very clear that policy under Sinn Féin Government would change and funds would not be able to buy either houses or apartments. The measures we would take would push them out of the market. Instead, we would use public funding to buy those same developments for social housing and large volumes of affordable homes.

Again, what reassurance can the Minister give to his constituents in Portmarnock that there will not be more of these developments bulk-bought by institutional investors because they can pay over the odds and price young families out of the market?

See this speech in context