Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This week, we heard the shocking statistics that rents in the State have risen by 82% since 2010. In the same period, they have risen by only 18% in Europe. Last year, investment funds purchased one in ten second-hand homes and one in four apartments in the State. In Berlin the Government is taking homes back from investment funds and ridding the city of the cuckoo and vulture funds. There are 166,000 vacant homes in the State. Almost 50,000 of them have been vacant for longer than six years. In France there is a high-charge incremental vacant home tax that saw a 13% reduction in vacancy. This is the equivalent of 21,580 properties in this State if we were to do something similar.

We are in a housing emergency. This is a disaster and people are in crisis. Throughout Europe there are solutions if the Minister and the Taoiseach were willing to look. Instead, while he and the Taoiseach are in Brussels shaking hands and speaking to people about all of the great meetings they have had over the past two years, 4,000 children will sleep in emergency accommodation this Christmas. Before the Minister of State and the Taoiseach go off to Europe and off into the distance, they should remember that housing is the number one issue. If they can do it in Europe, why in the name of God is the Government not looking at solutions and bringing them home? These are a few examples of what they could and should be doing.

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