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

No doubt the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, will list off all that the Government thinks it has done since it came to office and say how great it is and how we are turning the corner. My God, it must be the biggest corner of all time.

We see, in Belcamp Manor, 46 homes, or 85% of the homes there, bought by a vulture fund. Why are people surprised by this? It is a Fine Gael policy. Fine Gael brought this in. The mystery here is how Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have let Fine Gael get away with vulture funds riding roughshod over people, operating on a tax-free basis, doing what they want and buying up houses. To be fair, this is Fine Gael's policy. I am completely against it but I understand where Fine Gael is coming from. Fine Gael is pro-vulture funds. It is pro-cuckoo funds. We are pro-people. We are pro-ordinary workers and families. What is the Green Party and Fianna Fáil doing while Fine Gael is doing this to ordinary people?

I was contacted by a lady in Cork. She wanted to get the new vacant home grant that we hear so much about. Four months she was waiting to get a surveyor to come in because the Government has not given Cork City Council the resources to implement the plan relating to the grant.

Then we hear about delivery and what the Government is doing. I will give the Minister of State a hint of what it is doing. There are 1,150 homes that they have not added one block to since the Government came to office, and the Government talks about housing delivery. Houses are left to rot, remain half-built or are not even started. On Kilmore Road in Knocknaheeny, there are 24 homes that have remained half-built for five years under this Government's watch.

The Minister of State talks about all the stuff the Government is doing. I will tell him what the Government is doing. House prices in Cork are up €58,000 since it came to power. Now I am not sure about his sense of reality or that of the Government, but if the Minister of State asks any man or woman on the street who is saving for a mortgage or asks any couple or person who is trying to buy their own home, he will be informed that €58,000 might as well be the moon for them. That is what the Government's policies have done. Those in government are pro-vulture funds and pro-cuckoo funds and anti-ordinary people.

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