Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are large-scale owners in Ireland and the information we have at present peters out at that level. We need more information. It is not that they are building everything. Let us be clear. We have heard reports of investment funds sending people around to bid on second-hand properties all over the city. We have heard the stories of people who are going to buy apartments because there is a constant market. They are there as actors and they are outbidding people who want to buy family homes. This is the reality. They are outbidding for estates. They are not the main drivers. The idea that the investment firms have built all of these is not necessarily true. Builders built them and they will build them for whoever asks them to build them. I hope more often in the future this will be the State. There is a market in second-hand properties that has been very much saturated by commercial and speculative actors. I live in the city centre surrounded by apartment buildings and I see it happening all the time.