Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not like to see investment funds buying up family homes en masse. I know the Deputy does not either. I have said that before. However, what she has represented in the Dáil today is not the full story. As is so often the case, she has engaged in a degree of misleading behaviour. The Government did change the law. We changed the law back in May 2021 after the events in Maynooth the Deputy has described. That change prohibited the bulk-buying of houses and duplexes by a single buyer and also allowed local authorities to apply planning conditions preventing the sale of homes in the kind of bulk seen in this case. I have looked into it. The planning permission for this particular development in Dublin 17 dates from 2019. The planning permission was therefore granted two years before the law was changed. The Deputy will understand that laws cannot be changed retrospectively in this State.

On stamp duty, stamp duty is set at 10%. We are not ruling out an increase, as the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has made clear, but it is something that has to be considered carefully because any change to tax can have unforeseen impacts and such changes sometimes do not work. We therefore need to make sure that if there is any change, it is thought through and teased out correctly. However, to be very clear, we have changed the law in this area. This could not happen in respect of any development granted planning permission from 2021 onwards. This is an old outstanding planning permission and that is why it was possible in this case.

With regard to the sale of family homes to bulk buyers, I do not have the exact figures in front of me but I think it was something like 600 or 680 out of 50,000 transactions last year, equating to perhaps 1,000 out of 100,000 transactions. It is not minimal or inconsiderable but it would not be accurate to create the impression that this is happening in great numbers.

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