Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Faoin Rialtas seo, níl dabht ar bith ach go leanfaidh creach-chistí ar aghaidh ag ceannach tithe teaghlaigh atá ag teastáil ó cheannaitheoirí tí atá ag streachailt. Caithfimid stop a chur leis seo. Tá moladh curtha os comhair na Dála ag Sinn Féin chun deireadh a chur leis seo ach tá an Rialtas ag diúltú agus ag cur in éadan an mholta sin.

Last week, it was revealed that an investment fund bought up to 85% of an entire housing estate in Balgriffin, County Dublin. These were homes that should have been on the market for buyers but were instead snatched away from them by investment funds that have the financial power and enjoy the tax advantages that homebuyers can never hope to compete against. In response to these events, the Taoiseach said he would look into this and see whether more needed to be done. However, the Minister and I know that this was not an isolated incident, with funds snapping up homes at an alarming rate right across this city and beyond. Only last year, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, was told by his Department that hundreds of homes were being snapped up by these funds and that the Government's measures were not working. Figures given to me by the Department of Finance show that the number of family homes snapped up by these funds has increased each year, with more than 620 homes bought from under struggling homebuyers last year alone. That was 620 homes in 2023 alone.

Far from what happened with Belcamp Manor in Balgriffin being an isolated incident, a Belcamp Manor is being snapped up by these funds every 30 days. That is what happening and it is happening under the Minister's watch. In less than three years since the Government's half-baked measures were introduced, more than 1,200 homes have been snapped up by these funds. These are homes that should have been available for workers and families to buy, own and live in, yet the Government has decided to do nothing about it. It feigned action. In 2021, the Minister Housing, Local Government and Heritage said, "We need ... to make sure that we don't have first-time buyers competing against large investment funds ... That's not a situation that anyone could stand over, nor indeed that I as housing minister could stand over." However, he has stood over it and is standing over it because he knows exactly what is happening. The funds are buying hundreds of homes every single year under the noses of first-time buyers.

In May 2021, the Government scrambled to respond. In truth, its response paid lip service to the issue. A new tax was introduced to give the appearance of action but it was a bluff. I warned at the time that the tax was too low and would not stop investment funds from snapping up homes that should be available for workers and families to buy. That has proven to be the case. Now that the Government is confronted with the facts, it decides to do nothing about it. This Parliament can ensure that a vulture fund never ever buys a home that should be available to workers and families to buy and live in. We can do that by increasing the stamp duty that applies to them and stopping this practice for once and for all. That is the action Sinn Féin put to the Government in the House yesterday, yet it is opposing it. The only logical conclusion anyone can reach is that this is a government that is on the side of the vulture funds, that is happy for this to continue and that is happy for 85% of an entire development in Dublin to be snapped up by an investment fund and rented out at extortionate rates of more than €3,100 per month. To add insult to injury, those funds will not pay a penny in tax on that rental income. This is a government that is obviously comfortable with the fact that more than 1,200 family homes have been snapped up by investment funds in less than three years, is comfortable with the fact that struggling homebuyers are being priced out of the market by these funds and is comfortable with the fact that these funds are increasing their reach and snapping up more homes than ever before.

How can the Minister stand over this when he stood in the House in 2021 and said he would never stand over it? It is happening at a scale we have not seen before, yet the Government is deciding to do nothing. Will he support the Sinn Féin motion and stamp out vulture funds buying family homes from under the noses of first-time buyers?

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