I also raise the role of the international investment funds in displacing individuals and families from purchasing a home. Last week, the example occurred in Maynooth, in Mullen Park housing estate, which is well under construction at this stage. I started getting calls and emails late last week from constituents on this. Each one of them had signed up with an estate agent expressing an interest in purchasing a home. They would have been watching the development as it was progressing. They would have been looking forward to the day when they would have been contacted and asked to pay a deposit on a house. Those hopes were dashed last week when the auctioneers sent them an email to say that Round Hill Capital would be buying the rest of the estate.

The developer had no shortage of buyers. Individuals wished to purchase, as did Kildare County Council and Tuath Housing association. However, they were all dumped in favour of Round Hill Capital. The same company also purchased 112 family homes in Bay Meadows, Hollystown and 297 apartments in Northwood, Dublin. They will now come on the market at extortionate rents.

Round Hill Capital claims to have €1 billion to spend on residential property in Ireland. It is just one of dozens of investors competing for this limited supply of housing. Since 2018, nearly €4 billion has been invested by global funds in the Irish residential market. In 2019, international funds bought a staggering 95% of the apartments that were constructed that year. How are ordinary buyers, who scrimp and save for a mortgage, supposed to compete with this?

There is no mystery as to why these funds are outbidding ordinary buyers because they are being advantaged by the State. As has been said, they pay no stamp duty, no capital gains tax and no corporation tax. I listened to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage yesterday talk about not doing anything radical. He was concerned about unintended consequences. It begs the question: is what happened in Maynooth an unintended consequence? It is not just that estate in Maynooth; another estate in Maynooth went the same way some months ago.

There is a skewed ideology at play here. The Taoiseach must tell us when there will be a change in this. It cannot be put off until the budget. If we need to, every one of us can sit over a weekend or overnight to pass legislation to stop this. It is not just that they are buying these estates, but we will find that the State will be on the other side with long leases over 25 years where they will be leased, refurbished and returned to the developer at the end of it.

The time is up.

The Taoiseach needs to tell us when this will change. There is an urgency about this now.

I thank the Deputy. Time is up.

We are getting to a point of no return. We need a timeframe on this.

I appreciate the genuine points the Deputy has articulated. No local authority should be on the other side of this. Let that message go out loud and clear from Government. No local authority should be on the other side of this, engaging in a long lease with these institutional investors in that estate. A limited degree of leasing has some importance, but leasing over the long term does not represent great value for money. That is why we are building 9,500 social houses this year out of 12,750 social houses overall. That is why we want to build 50,000 social houses by way of direct build over the next five years. That is the overall commitment of the Government. That is where the main focus of Government construction will be in the coming period.

We will deal with the swoop-in by that institutional investor, which is not acceptable. Previous Governments facilitated the arrival here of investors with the good intention of trying to get some investment into the high-density rental market, particularly in Dublin, when capital was scarce. It was never intended that that would facilitate competing with first-time buyers on a suburban housing estate. That was never the intention and it will be dealt with. Government will ensure that is disincentivised and not facilitated.

Obviously, the Minister for Finance will meet his team this afternoon to discuss this matter. He will also engage with colleagues across government on this development. Government wants to give people the chance to be able to afford to buy their own homes through a number of schemes. We also want to make sure that we build the largest social housing programme in the history of the State to ensure that people who cannot afford to buy houses get houses at rents they can afford. The cost rental scheme is another mechanism that will also enable people to get access to homes.

Last year, just over 20,000 houses were provided in the entire country, of which approximately 8,000 were social houses. We do not have a thriving private market in this economy. Sinn Féin keeps going on about it and keeps on inventing the same old slogans and the same rhetoric. However, it is simply rhetoric at this stage because the bulk of housing construction at the moment is being driven by the State in a variety of shapes and forms. That will continue to be the case for quite some time to come.

The key point is this. I accept the basic principle of what the Deputy is saying that what happened in Maynooth is not acceptable. It is not something we want to see happening in this country. We want those housing estates reserved for people who wish to buy houses and for AHBs.

The Taoiseach did not tell us when that will be addressed. It is important for us to hear that today. I do not know if I am living on a different planet or in a different country, but all I see in the area that I represent are turnkey developments that are being long-leased by the local authority. I do not see any builds. I do not see where all this social housing is coming from. I can give the Taoiseach the names of the estates that are long-leased.

I live 100 yd from an estate which is under construction and in which 61 Part V houses are to be long-leased for 25 years. Tomorrow night, in our Private Members' time, my colleague, Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, will bring a Bill before the House to deal with this issue. As I said, I live only 100 yd from the estate. Everybody expected that the 61 houses would be local authority housing and would be peppered throughout what would be a nice estate. It was expected that the State would buy these houses such that they would be an asset at the end of the process. Nobody expected that these houses would be long-leased for 25 years, after which they would be refurbished and returned to the developer. I have raised this issue previously with the Taoiseach. This is madness. The Taoiseach needs to tell us when this is going to change.

As the Deputy will know, the Government will not oppose the Bill tomorrow. The Government wants to work with the Deputy's party in respect of the legislation it is bringing forward tomorrow to deal with the leasing issue. The leasing issue is not the dominant form of house provision. As I mentioned earlier, in terms of institutional investment and to give a sense of perspective, 5% of all rental tenancies and 1% of the existing housing stock is owned by institutional investment. There is need for balance in this area. In terms of affordability, as referenced, last February Fingal County Council announced its first affordable housing scheme in 11 years, the Dun Emer scheme, which will provide 51 homes, of which 39 will be affordable housing and 12 will be social housing. The scheme is a mix of two-bedroom apartments at €166,000 and not €450,000; three-bedroom duplexes at €206,000; three-bedroom terraced houses from €250,000; and three-bedroom semi-detached houses from €258,000. A range of affordable schemes will emerge from the initiatives taken in this area by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien.

On Part V housing, the preference of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is not that leasing would be the dominant form of that provision. That is the policy position.

That is what is happening.

Thank you Taoiseach. The time is up.

That is our policy position. We do not want to see, in any shape or form, an over-use of the Part V mechanism via the leasing option.