It appears from the Taoiseach's comments earlier that he is now okay with family homes being traded by investment funds as a financial asset. Let us be very clear about what is happening. Investment funds bought up homes at inflated prices, reducing the supply for individuals and families trying to buy homes and increasing prices at the same time. They then secured long-term leases guaranteed by the State. The investment fund, having secured those lucrative deals, then flips the home onto another investment fund at almost double the price of the going rate. How does the Taoiseach not see a problem with this? What is he going to do about it?

Again, the Deputy is putting words in my mouth that are wrong. He should not do that. He is correct; this is a fund selling on to a fund. That is not how it was presented earlier in the debate, but that is exactly what happened. Since the nine houses, or perhaps a larger estate, were bought, the Government has introduced measures such as stamp duty on any fund that buys ten houses or more and, indeed, planning regulations that were brought in by the Minister to restrict the purchase of homes by institutional funds.

The Deputy knows all those measures are now in place to deal with that issue in respect of homes. It is not, as presented, institutional funds competing with first-time buyers. It was one fund buying from a fund that already had the properties that were being leased to the local authority. The people in the houses stay in the houses and will stay there for the next 25 years, as per their tenancies with the local authority for social homes.