Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat. Three years ago, the Taoiseach's Government promised it would stop vulture funds bulk-buying family homes from under the noses of ordinary homebuyers. This followed considerable public anger on the back of a fund attempting to buy up the majority of homes at Mullen Park in Maynooth. On the floor of the Dáil the Taoiseach said:

What happened in Maynooth and Hollystown is not right. We do not want investment funds in any form coming in and buying substantially complete developments that could have been bought by first-time buyers, upgraders or even approved housing bodies ...

The Taoiseach then proceeded to introduce measures that left the door wide open for vultures. At the time, we warned the Taoiseach that his Government's measures were doomed to failure. We told him the Government had not gone far enough to deter the vultures but he ignored those warnings.

Fast forward two and a half years and more than 1,200 family homes have been snapped up by vulture funds since the Government introduced its regulations. These are homes on which vulture funds charge extortionate rent. Far from stopping the vulture funds, they are laughing all the way to the bank. It is a real kick in the teeth for everyone who has saved every spare euro and made real sacrifices to try to get a mortgage deposit together.

The latest such scandal has occurred at Belcamp Manor in north Dublin, where a vulture fund snapped up 46 of 54 homes in that estate, robbing ordinary families of the chance to buy a home. These homes are going to be let out at rents of upwards of €3,000 a month. The Taoiseach's response to the Belcamp Manor bulk purchase was that the Government would now have to look at what happened, but this situation did not come out of the blue. In fact, last year the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, was told by Department of Finance officials that the vulture funds had snapped up, and were still snapping up, family homes and it has got worse since then.

The Taoiseach's Government knows and has known that this has been happening and it knows how it has happened and why. The stamp duty rate the Government set out in May 2021 on the bulk-buying of homes was just far too low. Tens of thousands of homes already in the planning process were also left at risk of being snapped up by the vultures. The Taoiseach, then, should not be surprised. This has happened because the Government left the door open and the vultures swooped through.

Caithfidh an Rialtas stop a chur leis na gcreach-chistí agus tithe á gceannach acu faoi shróna na ngnáthdhaoine. Ní mór don Rialtas gníomhú go deimhneach ar thaobh na ndaoine atá éadóchas go mbeidh siad in ann a dtithe féin a bheith acu. The Government must act now to finally clip the wings of the vulture funds. The Taoiseach said his aim is to stop these funds swooping in and buying up housing estates. Yet the Government has indicated it will vote down Sinn Féin's motion which seeks to do just that. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has said the Government is reviewing the situation. Really? At this stage?

Every TD now has a chance tomorrow night to vote to actually clip the wings of vultures. I am asking each of them to do so and to stand with ordinary homebuyers in their constituencies against the unfair financial power of the vulture funds.

I am asking the Taoiseach to realise the damage these funds are doing. I urge him to change his mind and to support Sinn Féin's motion to stop these funds in their tracks.

See this speech in context