Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the motion, particularly as, in the middle of the worst housing crisis this State has experienced, the Government is standing idly by and letting vulture funds swoop in and bulk-buy new family homes. Worse still, not only is it standing by, but it is incentivising and encouraging it. We need to see urgent measures taken to put a halt to the practice of these vulture funds.

Thousands upon thousands of people have been working hard and saving everything they can but they still cannot afford homes. We have a generation putting their lives on hold to simply own their own homes, but they are left fighting against the enormous wealth of these vulture funds. It is not a battle that they can win without Government intervention on their behalf. This injustice must stop. How many more housing estates will this Government allow to be sold off to vulture funds?

We need to put Irish workers and families ahead of foreign vulture funds because 3,500 new homes are going to be built on the Irish Glass Bottle site. The first phase of construction is under way. Are vulture funds going to be allowed to swoop in and buy up all the homes and then rent them out to hard-working families who will not be able to afford them? The only people that will be able to afford them are the extremely wealthy. The communities I represent, such as those in Ringsend, Irishtown, and Pearse Street, are crying out for housing. They are enduring seriously high levels of construction noise and traffic from 7 a.m in the hope that the Irish Glass Bottle site will deliver affordable homes to the community. However, this site, like so many other housing developments, is being left vulnerable to bulk-buying by these virtual funds. This practice must stop. Fairness must be introduced into the housing market and the wings of the vulture funds must be clipped.

See this speech in context