Over recent years, banks have been selling off loans, including family homes and buy-to-lets, to vulture funds at knock-down prices. To enable these funds to do their thing, the Government has designed a tax system that incentivises the funds to buy even more loans, which the banks are more than happy to offload despite the dire consequences for the borrowers. Many vulture funds are now structuring their arrangements in such a way that they pay no tax at all in this State. Ulster Bank has a particular fondness for selling loans on to vulture funds. Last year it sold a portfolio of loans known as Project Scariff which was worth €1.6 billion but was sold to a vulture fund, called Promontoria Scariff. It consists of about 3,600 family homes and 2,900 buy-to-lets. A company called Cabot Financial Ireland is administering these loans and its actions to date in dealing with borrowers have been absolutely disgraceful. A number of weeks ago, it wrote to its buy-to-let customers who were behind in mortgage payments and demanded that the arrears be cleared within 30 days. I have received correspondence from a number of those mortgage holders which shows that they were in very small arrears, in some cases less than €3,000. The statement they got from the vulture fund demanded full payment, not just of the arrears but of the entire loan. They are being given seven days to make the payment, and to come up with hundreds of thousands of euro in some cases. Some of the borrowers have serious health concerns in their households and the vultures which are sending the letters know about these concerns but they continue to issue the letters and the demands without any regard to what is happening. They are paying no regard to the fact that arrears are less than €3,000 in some cases and they are not facilitating any arrangements with borrowers. It is not just borrowers who are affected by this. As they appoint fixed-asset receivers, the tenants in these houses will be turfed out onto the street and they need somewhere to live. Two sets of lives are being destroyed as a result of this policy and it is utterly chaotic for the families involved. It runs roughshod over any level of common decency in the way vultures and banks should be dealing with customers in arrears.

All of this is a direct consequence of Government policy, which is to roll out the red carpet to these leeches.

They can do this, and will do it, because they know that the Government will do nothing to stop them. That is why they are playing hard, fast and very loose with these customers. Indeed, the record shows that the Government will do everything to facilitate them.

I thank the Deputy. His time is up.

It is precisely because of the actions of Cabot Financial Ireland that people fear their loans being sold to vultures. Does the Taoiseach stand over this practice or does he now agree with Sinn Féin that it is time to clip the wings of the vultures?

I am afraid that I do not have any particular information about the financial transactions that the Deputy referred to or the individual cases that he has outlined, so it is not really possible for me to comment on either of those matters without having the information that he has. What I can say is that the tax treatment of property investment funds is under review. There was a time six or seven years ago when property prices were plummeting and nobody was building new homes and new apartments in the State. We are now in a very different position today. Property prices have recovered. They are still, thankfully, 20% lower than they were 12 years ago, but they have recovered.

Rents are €600 per month dearer.

We are now seeing new building happening all over the country. It is almost certain that we will build between 20,000 and 25,000 new homes and apartments this year.

Given that the picture has changed so much, it is now time for us to review the tax treatment of property investment funds. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, is doing that in advance of the budget, which will be in October. That is the prudent thing to do. Tax incentives are brought in at a time to stimulate particular activity but are then removed at a later time when they are no longer necessary. That work is being done at the moment by the Minister and the Department of Finance.

In relation to consumer protections, one of the things that we have done as a Government, with the co-operation of this House, is to extend regulation to property investment funds. That is a positive thing. We have also enhanced consumer protections for mortgage holders so that mortgage holders have the same consumer protections regardless of who owns those loans. In addition to that, the Deputy will be aware of legislation going through the Seanad in the next couple of days to extend protections for tenants; to increase notice to quit periods so that people are given much more time to find a new place to live or rent if they need to; to extend the rent pressure zones and work out how they are calculated differently; and to extend protections to new entrants to the property market in recent years. They are all good pieces of legislation and I thank Members for their co-operation in getting them through both here and the Seanad.

The Government is reviewing the tax treatment because of an amendment that I tabled to last year's Finance Bill, but there should never have been a tax incentive for vulture funds, which bought portfolios worth billions of euro and have not had to pay a penny of tax on the incomes they have received or the uplift in property prices or any capital gains tax.

The Taoiseach does not need the details of the cases that I have outlined to know what is happening out there. Cabot Financial Ireland is doing this right across the board. I have raised this matter numerous times in the Dáil. The fact that the Government has not examined it just reinforces the point that, time and again, the Government facilitates vulture funds as opposed to those who are struggling to keep roofs over their heads.

I asked the Taoiseach a question. A number of customers have arrears of less than €3,000 with this vulture fund, yet it is telling them that it not only wants them to clear off their arrears, but also their loans of €170,000 or €190,000 within seven days, and that if they do not do so, it will come for their houses and appoint a fixed asset receiver. That is what is happening out there. The people who are unaware of what is happening - the renters in the house - will get notice to quit and will join a longer waiting list. Some may end up in emergency accommodation.

It is long past time to clip the wings of the vultures. Will the Taoiseach make a call and inquire of Promontoria Scariff, which is engaged in this type of behaviour-----

Time is up, Deputy, please.

Will the Taoiseach lift the phone to the State-owned banks, which are about to sell more family loans to these vultures? These families will be thrown to the wolves again. Alternatively, will the Government do what it has done consistently and sit on its hands and bow down to big business, big money and the vultures and always take their side?

I do not have access to the information the Deputy has. If he would like to pass on that information about the particular issues that he is raising, I would be happy to have it inquired into. However, not having known that he was going to raise this issue and not having to hand any of the information that he seems to have, needless to say I cannot comment on this in any meaningful detail. If the Deputy is genuinely concerned about those people - I am sure he is - I would be very happy for him to pass that information on to me.

I will make sure inquiries are made.

As I have said before, tax incentives are brought in for particular purposes and reasons. We reduced VAT for the tourism and hospitality industry when it was on the floor. When the industry made a full recovery, we were able to remove that tax incentive. We did something similar around home renovations when the construction industry was on the floor and there was no work for construction workers.

When were the vultures on the floor?

We brought that in-----

When was there a demand to give tax incentives to the vultures? Never.

Can we hear Deputy Howlin, please?