Yesterday, the CSO reported that house prices had risen by 4% in the past year and that, since February 2012, property prices here in Dublin had increased by a staggering 98%. In this city house prices have doubled. The same picture can be seen right across the State. The Tánaiste has sat at the Cabinet table for the entirety of this period. This is the Tánaiste's record.

This week has rightly been dominated by the housing issue, which has been described as a social crisis. A report published on Tuesday by the ESRI found that, through a combination of stagnant wages and high housing costs, those aged in their 20s and 30s are likely to be the first generation with lower living standards than the generation before them, an historical first - again, the Tánaiste's record. Home ownership is at its lowest level in decades - again, the Tánaiste's record. This is a result of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael policy, a refusal to invest adequately in social and affordable housing and a decision to hand the provision of housing, which should be a public good, over to the free market and high finance to the benefit of speculators, developers and landlords. As a consequence, the Government has presided over a social crisis, with not one but many generations looking towards their future and their ability to secure a home and start a family with anxiety and despair.

The block purchase of homes in a new housing development in Maynooth by an investment fund under the noses of first-time buyers, who had worked so hard to save for a deposit and have a shot at home ownership, acted as a lightning rod for many more such cases. As I have said before, however, this is nothing new and certainly not an accident. In 2019, six out of every ten new homes in Dublin were taken off the market in sales to these funds. They have been facilitated and encouraged by Government policy through their paying no tax on rental profits, no capital gains tax and little by way of stamp duty. Sinn Féin has been calling for years for the Government to end these tax advantages, warning that these funds were not only pricing ordinary individuals out of the market but driving up prices and rents as well. In 2019, the value of home purchases by these funds grew by 7% across Europe; in this State, in the same year, it grew by 141% - the Tánaiste's record. I expect these funds to continue to snap up houses at the expense of struggling homeowners and homebuyers in the months ahead, just as they have been doing for years, a direct result of the policy of the Tánaiste's party and Government.

The Tánaiste knows well that over seven months ago, during discussion on the Finance Bill, we called on the Government to impose a stamp duty surcharge on investment funds buying up homes in the Irish market. During the passage of that Bill, the Government refused and voted against Sinn Féin's proposal to examine the tax treatment of these funds. Last week, however, when the public's attention was drawn to this issue and the Government's policies and their devastating consequences were laid bare for all to see, the Government told us that it would rush to bring forward proposals to fix the problems and that those proposals would be before us this week.

What policies does the Government propose? Were these proposals discussed at Cabinet? Will the Government end the tax advantage these funds were given by the Government and implement Sinn Féin's proposal to impose a stamp duty surcharge on them?

The Deputy has laid out some facts. Many of them are correct but they are also one-sided. It is true that house prices have increased by about 90% since the trough in 2013, but what the Deputy did not mention - and this is relevant - is that they are still lower than the peak 12 or 13 years ago. We certainly do not want to see them go back to that level. House prices have gone up by about 4% in the past year but we will need to see where that goes. The figure may well be distorted by the fact that we had no building, real estate transactions or house viewings for months, and that may change. It may stabilise or go in a different direction in the next few months. A lot of statistics at the moment are thrown by the pandemic, and we need to bear that in mind.

The Deputy is right that home ownership has fallen off significantly in recent years, but it is still the case that between 65% and 70% of people in Ireland own their own homes. That is a higher percentage than in the US, the UK, Germany, France, Australia and lots of other places. That has nothing to do with Sinn Féin; it has to do with policies pursued by parties that have been in government in the past few decades. The problem we have - and it is a problem - is that home ownership has been out of reach for far too many people in their 20s and 30s for far too long. That is what we have to change over the next three years in government to make that reality of home ownership possible for people now in their 20s and 30s so they can own their homes, just as their parents did.

Investment funds were invited into Ireland back in 2012. We should be honest about the fact that Ireland was a very different place in 2012. Home values were plummeting, hundreds of thousands of people were in negative equity, hundreds of thousands of people were in mortgage arrears, there were ghost estates all over the country, nothing was being sold and nothing was being built. Money from investors in Ireland and overseas helped to turn that around. However, things have changed now. I get that. The Government gets that. Home ownership has been out of reach for far too many people for far too long, and that requires a change of policy, one that prioritises first-time buyers and families who need to upgrade to bigger homes. For this reason, next Tuesday the Cabinet will consider proposals to do exactly that. They will be brought forward by the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Darragh O'Brien, and we will act quickly in that regard. Funds do, however, have a role to play. We have to build about 350,000 new homes over the next ten years at a cost of about €120 billion. There is no way the State can finance all of that on its own. We need the private sector and public sector working together and we need public housing and private housing.

Before I finish I want to say this, and I really do feel this way. Sinn Féin, the Deputy's party, speaks with a forked tongue when it comes to home ownership. This week and last week, Sinn Féin has tried to present itself as a champion of first-time buyers and families who want to upgrade, of homeowners, but the policy of Sinn Féin is the absolute reverse. Its constant mantra is "public housing on public land". That is no good to people who want to own a home. It is no good to first-time buyers or people who need to upgrade. In Sinn Féin's actions it demonstrates this all the time. Sinn Féin councillors all across Dublin and around the country have voted down mixed developments. The stated reason for their voting them down is that some private housing would be built on those sites. They did not want a single home that somebody could actually buy outright. Yes, maybe some affordable schemes and, yes, social housing, but they have consistently voted against housing on huge sites across Dublin and around the country, exactly because homes might be built on them that people could buy.

I have read and studied Sinn Féin's affordable housing policy. It is very different from the one put forward by the Government. It is a leasehold arrangement. You never get to own the house. It is never freehold. That is a totally different vision. It is a Sinn Féin vision. It is an ideology that is anti-enterprise, anti-private property and, therefore, anti-home ownership.

"Leo always delivers" was the text message that sparked what is now the criminal investigation into the leaking of confidential documents. The question many people are asking, however, is when Leo will deliver for the renters and for people who want to own their own homes in this city and beyond, and when Leo will deliver to make sure the wings of the vulture funds are clipped. The Tánaiste suggests that this was back in 2012 and 2013. In 2019, six out of ten homes sold in Dublin were bought up by these vulture funds under the Government's nose. The Government was told about this. I told the Minister with responsibility this time and again. The Government voted just seven months ago to keep the sweetheart tax arrangements for these funds in place. The Government continually refuses to implement Sinn Féin's proposal to double capital investment in social, affordable and cost-rental accommodation.

Last night, the Government voted against freezing rents and reducing rents by providing a refundable tax credit, which would take some of the pressure off people who are suffering as a result of its policies. The Tánaiste sat at the Cabinet table for ten years. In that time, house prices have doubled. They are out of the reach of generations. Rents are through the roof. Has the Tánaiste any idea of what type of proposals will be brought forward, or will he just make another attack and blame the Opposition for the policies that he has implemented for the last ten years?

I do, but I am bound by Cabinet confidentiality and I am not in a position to discuss them with the Deputy until they are agreed by the Cabinet next Tuesday. The Deputy knows that well, so he should stop the theatrics. The Government is making progress on housing. It is not enough, and I accept that. Family homelessness is at its lowest level in five years. The Deputy did not acknowledge that. Individual homelessness is at its lowest level in four years. The Deputy also did not acknowledge that. We are now in a position where the State is building approximately 6,000 social homes a year, and more depending on how one calculates it. Nearly one third of all homes built in Ireland last year were built by the State. We have to refer back to the 1980s or even the 1950s or 1960s to see such high proportions.

However, I acknowledge that we are not delivering for people when it comes to home ownership. That requires us to re-examine our policies and make some changes. We are going to make those changes. The Deputy should not pretend that Sinn Féin is somehow on the side of first-time buyers or families who want to buy a home or upgrade. Sinn Féin is against private enterprise, private property and home ownership. It demonstrates that all the time on county councils where it votes against housing developments precisely because private houses might be built as homes for people to buy.

Gabh mo leithscéal a Theachta Kelly. Tabhair dom nóiméad amháin. Caithfear cloí leis na srianta ama. Tá sé i bhfad níos éasca nuair a oibrímid as lámh a chéile.