Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have bent over backwards for cuckoo funds. The catalogue of advantages they have given them include sweetheart tax deals, fast-track planning and reduced apartment design standards. Their support for cuckoo funds pushes ordinary people out of the housing market as they gobble up family homes in bulk and rent those homes back to families at extortionate rents.

Public anger came to boiling point earlier this year when a cuckoo fund was set to sweep up the majority of homes in a development in Maynooth from under the noses of ordinary home buyers. Instead of taking real action to clip the wings of these funds, their response was very limp. The stamp duty increase of 10% is easily absorbed by wealthy funds, which continue to pay zero tax on the hundreds of millions of euro they make from the outrageous rents they charge. Of course, they excluded apartments from the stamp duty increase, which means it is still open season for cuckoo funds on more than half of the homes that are built in this city. They literally hung the flag of surrender over Dublin for these investors. Then the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, dropped the stamp duty increase for funds that bulk-buy family homes if they lease those homes back to local authorities. That decision will see the State hand over €1 billion to cuckoo funds.

That was not meaningful action to put manners on these funds. Indeed, it showed them they really have nothing to fear from the Taoiseach's Government. When it comes to a choice between showing up for those in housing need or maintaining the power of wealthy investors, the Taoiseach has made it very clear whose side he is on.

Now it is a case of here we go again because on Sunday we learned the Taoiseach's Ministers, Deputies Darragh O’Brien and Paschal Donohoe, are looking to dust off the red carpet again and roll it out for these funds. As house prices continue to soar beyond the reach of ordinary workers and as extortionate rents continue to spin out of control, the Taoiseach's Ministers set out on a mission to attract in more of the very funds that wreck the housing market and rob people of an affordable roof over their heads.

There is no public support for this insanity. People want a change of direction. They want a Government that will take the lead and build homes that workers and families can afford to buy or rent. This is where the Taoiseach's focus and that of his Ministers should be, not on cosying up even further with cuckoo funds.

Tá tacaíocht an Taoisigh do na cuach-chistí ag spreagadh na géarchéime tithíochta seo. Ní féidir leis dul ar aghaidh. Tá daoine ag lorg rialtais atá chun tithe a thógáil a mbeidh oibrithe agus teaghlaigh in ann iad a cheannach nó a chíosadh. Did the Taoiseach know about this roadshow and approve of it? Can he tell us whom his Ministers intend to meet? Does he know that? What new sweetheart deals or incentives are they offering to these investors to bring them to Ireland? It is in the public interest that details of the Ministers' proposed cuckoo fund roadshow be published urgently. I want the Taoiseach to commit to this.

Ar dtús báire, arís, níl an fhírinne á rá ag an Teachta. Níl an ceart aici. Go bunúsach, is í an aidhm atá ag an Rialtas ná tithe a chur ar fáil do dhaoine ar fud na tíre, na gnáthdhaoine agus cosmhuintir na tíre. Is í sin an t-aon aidhm amháin atá ag an Rialtas. The Deputy's attempts to portray Government policy as being almost exclusively about institutional investors are very wide off the mark, disingenuous and dishonest. The fundamental tenet of Government policy has been to provide the largest allocation in the history of the State to house construction. Capital housing funding of more than €4 billion will be provided in 2022. That is a fact. We are looking at providing 1,580 cost-rental homes next years by approved housing bodies, AHBs, local authorities and the Land Development Agency, LDA, at 25% below market rate. That is what we are interested in - making sure people can either rent or buy a house at an affordable rate and, in addition, providing very substantial amounts of social housing.

We have introduced the new national first home affordable purchase shared equity scheme, the Rebuilding Ireland home loans scheme and the help-to-buy-schemes. The Government has already introduced five rental Acts to help to deal with rent issues during the Covid emergency. In addition, the Minister is bringing in legislation to reduce the level of rent increases in rent pressure zones, RPZs, to 2%. That has been approved by Government. Again, the aim is to seek to protect tenants in every way possible, including students, having previously dealt with the upfront payments students have to pay. The Government has approved that Bill to cap rent increases in RPZs to no more than 2% per annum pro rata. Project Tosaigh, providing €1 billion, will enable the LDA to deliver approximately 5,000 affordable homes. Budget 2022, as the Deputy knows, provides for the delivery of more than 11,800 social homes in 2022, of which 9,000 will be new builds. In voids alone, 5,500 social homes have been brought back into use over the past 18 months by the Government. A further 1,500 voids are to be remediated and brought back into use next year.

Why do I say all of that?

Because you do not want to answer my question.

No. The question is meant to be a propaganda spin, designed to portray Government housing policy as being exclusively about one thing and one thing only, which, of course, is far from the truth. I have outlined the facts to the Deputy. As far as the Government is concerned, and Fianna Fáil has been in government for approximately a year and a half now with Fine Gael and the Green Party, we are very committed to enhancing public housing supply and also providing affordable housing in a very substantive way for the first time ever.

In regard to institutional investment and private housing development, there has to be a private sector dimension to all of this as well. We want private sector activity in the market but the primary intervention from Government is public housing. The provision of record numbers of public houses is what we want to achieve.

We have sent out the mandates to the local authorities to do that. We also want to assist in the construction of affordable housing in order that ordinary people can afford to buy houses, releasing them from the significant rent pressures which many are under.

Maynooth was not purchased. We have banned bulk buying by investment funds. Two recent An Bord Pleanála decisions have supported Government, which means homes have to be sold to individuals.

Nobody is against investment and Ireland is open for business. We all know that-----

I do not think we do.

-----but the Taoiseach's treatment of cuckoo funds and putting their needs over those of ordinary citizens has made an international laughing stock of Ireland. Now the Government is trying to take an entire generation, which is locked out of affordable housing, for fools. There are no fools out there. That is the truth. The Taoiseach had a lot to say, but he did not answer my question so, if I may-----

Sinn Féin supported the affordable housing legislation.

-----I will attempt to ask it again. Can he confirm the Ministers, Deputies Darragh O'Brien and Donohoe, will meet with and make a presentation to these cuckoo funds? Will that roadshow happen? Did he know about it and did he approve it? Who are his Ministers proposing to meet? What are they offering to these funds to entice them to Ireland? I would like the Taoiseach to answer those questions because those are the important matters that arise when we discover that far from learning any lessons, here we go again, with a Fianna Fáil-led Government and cuckoo funds.

This is the sound bite nonsense.

Deputy McDonald said the country is open for investment. What does she mean?

I ask the Taoiseach to answer the question.

There is a lot of bluff and bluster repeatedly coming from Deputy McDonald on housing, with nothing to back it up-----

It is a very simple question.

The Taoiseach is making a show of himself.

Every time the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, brings in legislation on affordable housing, we get this repeated negativity and opposition-----

I ask the Taoiseach to answer the question.

-----from Sinn Féin to the legislation until the division bells ring. What happens then?

It supports it.

Sinn Féin meekly goes in and supports the affordable housing legislation, despite all the bluster, hype and all of that.

I ask the Taoiseach to answer the question.

The Deputy opposite said we are open for investment, but by the way-----

-----we do not want any institutional investment whatsoever and wants a no-go area. That is the point.

The Deputy asked who we were taking for fools.

Who is the Deputy taking for fools, given the extraordinary repeated and consistent opposition to housing projects all over the country, denying ordinary people access to housing development after development? Rank hypocrisy is going on in this House for far too long. There is no roadshow to attract any cuckoo funds and-----

The Taoiseach is considerably over time and is not answering questions.

-----the Government agreed today on the owner-occupier guarantee-----

Are the Ministers to meet with these funds? Yes or no?

It was agreed by the Government in terms of legislation and so on.

The Taoiseach has not answered.

This intervention is totally out of order-----

Well, many things are out of order.

-----and is being facilitated by policies in the House.

What is out of order is the Taoiseach's Ministers running and cosying up to cuckoo funds in the midst of a housing crisis.

That is not true.

That is not true. Deputy McDonald should withdraw that remark.

I asked the questions and they have not been answered.

The Deputy takes everything from the Daily Mail.

The Deputy should get his boss to answer the questions then. How is that?