Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil offers hundreds of millions of euros to big property developers. That sentence could have been spoken in any one of the past four decades. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same, unfortunately. Ideological debates on this crisis have been happening in the House for many years. It is the view of Aontú and I that there is an ideological block inherent in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and the Greens, as their sidekicks, that prevents the resolution of the housing crisis. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael often see themselves as supporters of the free market and, yet, many of the actions they are taking distort the market more and more and keep it from functioning properly.

The support of the Government for the Airbnb system is incredible. It has the effect of distorting the market, with the ludicrous situation whereby the majority of homes that are for rent in towns and cities in this State are for short-term rent by tourists. We have an incredibly ludicrous situation whereby families are staying in hotels and tourists are staying in homes. Aontú brought forward a Bill that would ban short-term rents in towns and cities of populations of more than 10,000 people. Again, however, the Government refuses to act in respect of this matter.

The Government has also distorted the market by providing taxation red carpets to real estate investment trusts, REITs, and international vulture funds. International vulture funds and REITs now compete with young, first-time buyers. They have lower interest rates and taxation and access to endless funds. The Government still allows for such taxation advantage for REITs in this State. That is incredible when you think about it. I grant that there has been a change in Government policy over the past two or three years. The Government has increased the level of funding that has gone into the sector. Some €25.8 billion has been spent on solving the housing crisis since 2017. We have seen a 180% increase in our annual housing budget in that period, but what the hell do we have to show for it? Where are the housing units for families at the end of that?

The truth is that if one follows that money, much of it is going into the pockets of private landlords, developers or international funds. The ideological barrier to fixing this is still rock solid within the Government. The Government is subsiding the market, but there have been no improvements to the level of housing development. Some €305 million of taxpayer's money was spent to lease social housing from private companies. We have a situation in which there are 70,000 HAP and rental accommodation scheme, RAS, tenancies throughout the country. This underscores the wholesale dependency of this Government policy on the private rental sector for social housing provision.

Most of the so-called regulation that is being brought in to protect the tenant has more holes than a colander and no impact at all on the developers. Any investment in housing by the State must have a public good. There is no price discount in this plan. There are no affordability protections. There is no profitability limit for the developer at all. The money is being given to developers, irrespective of the profits they are making. Developers could receive this money. They could sell the apartments for €500,000 or €600,000 and still make a significant profit. The Government has put in no protections there. In many ways, this is social welfare by the Government for developers. It follows on from the party that socialised banking debt. It is the same ideological barrier again.

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