I will now take Leaders' Questions under Standing Order 36. Again, I ask Members for their co-operation in relation to the time limits.

Le beagnach seachtain anuas tá deireadh tragóideach agus cuibhdhe tagtha le polasaí páirtí an Tánaiste agus polasaí an Rialtais. Tá mórchuid na dtithe in eastáit chónaithe sa Stát ceannaithe ag ciste infheistíochta idirnáisiúnta. Le beannacht an Rialtais seo, ní íocann na cistí seo cáin ar bith ar an phroifid a dhéanann siad. Le beannacht an Rialtais seo, tá siad ag glasáil teaghlaigh agus oibrithe amach as úinéireacht tithe.

Last weekend, Round Hill Capital, an international investment fund, bought up most of a newly-built estate, Mullen Park, County Kildare. After years of working and saving, first-time buyers who had managed to save a deposit were told last week that 135 of these family homes were no longer for sale and had been sold to an international investment fund. Yesterday it was reported the same fund had bought an entire Dublin estate, Bay Meadows, of newly-built family homes and it will now rent these homes at a staggering €1,975 per month. The response of the Tánaiste's Government over the past few days would suggest that this is something new, something that has fallen out of the sky. This has been happening for years, and well the Tánaiste knows it. It happened in Dundrum and in Leopardstown, where a single fund bought 295 properties. It happened in Lucan last year, where Cairn Homes, one of the biggest developers in the State, sold 229 properties to a single investment fund and it has happened in many other areas.

Not only have the Tánaiste and his party's policies facilitated this, they have actually encouraged it and incentivised it through the taxation structure these funds enjoy. They pay no corporation tax, no capital gains tax when they sell the properties and little stamp duty. They pay no tax on the sky-high rental income they charge people in this city and beyond. The Tánaiste's party gave these funds the tax advantage, it designed it with the support of Fianna Fáil. They have created this situation where these international investment funds are snapping up family homes and locking first-time buyers out of the market. That is the reality. These parties have frustrated the hopes, dreams and aspirations of many workers and families who aspire to own their own homes.

I have been raising the issue of the tax advantages and exemptions enjoyed by these funds year after year. As late as last year, I submitted amendments to the Finance Bill so the Government would examine how these tax breaks are impacting on first-time buyers and how they are pushing up house prices. However, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green Party Deputies all walked in to that committee and voted against even looking at this issue. Every one of them opposed looking at this area and voted to keep the status quo and to ensure these funds enjoyed the tax exemptions they have been able to utilise to lock and push first-time buyers out of the market. Now that the horse has bolted, the Government is scrambling to contain the damage it has caused. In its end of year results in February, Glenveagh Properties, one of the biggest developers in the State, stated its strategy is to sell 43% of properties to these types of funds, and this is growing and gathering pace. The reports this morning of the squabbles in Government parliamentary parties, of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil taking swipes at each other, finger-pointing and blaming each other, are simply not good enough. Both parties are to blame but they must now grow up, take responsibility for their actions and undo the damage they have caused. Will the Tánaiste do what Sinn Féin has argued for over the years and take away the tax breaks and advantages Fine Gael gave to these funds so first-time buyers have a chance in the housing market? What actions will the Government take after the horse has bolted to end the block purchasing of family homes by these funds?

Ba chóir go mbeadh gach duine ábalta úinéireacht a bheith aige nó aici ar a theach nó a teach cónaithe agus ní mór dúinn an deis sin a thabhairt do dhaoine. Is muidne an Rialtas atá i bhfabhar úinéireacht ar thithe cónaithe agus creidim gur maith an rud é go mbeadh úinéireacht ag duine ar a mhian nó a mian féin agus ar a theach nó a teach cónaithe féin. I am somebody who strongly believes in home ownership. This is a Government that believes in home ownership. We think it is a good thing that people should be able to own their own home, should be able to acquire private property, that they should have an asset they can borrow against, extend if their family grows and something they can pass on to their children when they themselves pass on. Given his party's policies I am not sure Deputy Doherty believes that but we will leave it for another day. At the moment in Ireland, somewhere between 65% and 70% of people own their own home. We in Government want that to be a reality for people who are in their 20s and 30s now, so they have the same opportunity to own their own home as their parents did. That is why we have brought in things like the help-to-buy grant, giving people tax back to help them raise a deposit, it is why we have brought in the rebuilding Ireland home loan, to help people who could not get a mortgage from the banks, it is why we are investing in infrastructure to free up land for housing development and it is why we have established the Land Development Agency.

What happened in Maynooth and in Hollystown in my constituency is not consistent with that policy. It is not consistent with a Government policy that promotes supply and home ownership. We will act on it, and as I speak the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, are developing proposals for a solution. It must be a solution that resolves this problem but also one which does not have unintended consequences. We all know that when we pass a law or adopt a policy, there is always the law of unintended consequences and we may do something in good faith to solve a problem but actually create another one. That is why the Ministers need a little bit of time - and only a little bit - to come up with a workable solution.

Investment funds generally have a role to play. There are housing developments in this city, mainly apartment blocks, mainly high-density developments, which would not have been built if not for finance from investment funds. Such developments were not able to get funding from the banks. If they had not been built we would have fewer apartments, higher rents, higher prices and perhaps even more people in homelessness. We, therefore, need to get the balance right. People need places to rent, and well-managed developments to rent from. As things stand at the moment, less than 1% of the housing stock in Ireland is owned by investment funds and that is much lower than would be the case in most other developed countries. However, their correct role is to finance the construction of developments, not to swoop in and buy housing estates or developments that are already substantially complete. That is what we need to change and what the Government intends to change with the actions it will take in the coming weeks.

On the tax position, what Deputy Doherty said was misleading. He listed a whole bunch of taxes these investment funds did not pay and not the ones they do. He tried to create the false impression no tax is paid by investment funds - that is not the case. They pay tax on the dividend income and that is how these investments are structured. Furthermore, there have already been changes. There were changes in the budget last year, changes in the Finance Bill adopted and there may well be further changes required.

Fine Gael created this system, it supported it, it cheerled for it, it rolled out the red carpet for these funds to come in, it turbocharged them and now they are, and have been for years, snatching properties from first-time buyers. The Tánaiste mentioned taxes and dividend withholding taxes. Pension funds do not pay them. The Tánaiste must get real here. We have been raising this issue year after year after year. Indeed, it has not just been us. Last February, the Department of Finance argued for increasing taxes on these funds. We can see from freedom of information requests that an official did so. However, the Minister voted against that when we put forward that type of proposal. In 2019, the Department carried out a report which said these funds were buying big swathes of property, talked about locking people out of home ownership and the rental market. Despite this, Fine Gael did nothing bar cheerlead for these funds. The question, therefore, is what is the Government is going to do. The Tánaiste said we should give it a little time. For six years we have been raising the fact that Government parties have been on the side of these funds over ordinary first-time buyers who are locked out of the market.

Maynooth is not a flash in the pan. As I said, this has been happening in Dundrum, Leopardstown, Lucan, Lusk and many other areas for years. Last year more than 25% of all purchases were after construction. That is hundreds of millions of euro and the Tánaiste's Government cheerled for it. He stood in this Chamber just two weeks ago and said he believes it would be wrong to restrict these funds.

I had not been looking at the clock so the Deputy has benefited

That is a further misrepresentation. I did not say "restrict". I said it would be wrong to ban them outright and I explained the role they have to play and have had to play. I was interested to hear Deputy Ó Broin on "Prime Time" only the other night, for the first time ever that I have heard him, advocating for private investment and long-term investment by pension funds in housing. It is interesting to see a Sinn Féin spokesperson make that argument and I welcome him doing so.

Let there be no doubt that this Government is on the side of home ownership. We want people to be able to own their own home.

That does not appear to be true.

We want people to be able to have a private property in which they can live and raise their family before passing it to their children when they pass on themselves. That is not the policy of Sinn Féin or many of the left-wing parties in this Chamber, although they try to pretend otherwise. 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, but they have a role to play in financing high-density developments that might otherwise not be built.