Faoin Rialtas seo, níl dabht ar bith ach go leanfaidh creach-chistí ar aghaidh ag ceannach tithe teaghlaigh atá ag teastáil ó cheannaitheoirí tí atá ag streachailt. Caithfimid stop a chur leis seo. Tá moladh curtha os comhair na Dála ag Sinn Féin chun deireadh a chur leis seo ach tá an Rialtas ag diúltú agus ag cur in éadan an mholta sin.

Last week, it was revealed that an investment fund bought up to 85% of an entire housing estate in Balgriffin, County Dublin. These were homes that should have been on the market for buyers but were instead snatched away from them by investment funds that have the financial power and enjoy the tax advantages that homebuyers can never hope to compete against. In response to these events, the Taoiseach said he would look into this and see whether more needed to be done. However, the Minister and I know that this was not an isolated incident, with funds snapping up homes at an alarming rate right across this city and beyond. Only last year, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, was told by his Department that hundreds of homes were being snapped up by these funds and that the Government's measures were not working. Figures given to me by the Department of Finance show that the number of family homes snapped up by these funds has increased each year, with more than 620 homes bought from under struggling homebuyers last year alone. That was 620 homes in 2023 alone.

Far from what happened with Belcamp Manor in Balgriffin being an isolated incident, a Belcamp Manor is being snapped up by these funds every 30 days. That is what happening and it is happening under the Minister's watch. In less than three years since the Government's half-baked measures were introduced, more than 1,200 homes have been snapped up by these funds. These are homes that should have been available for workers and families to buy, own and live in, yet the Government has decided to do nothing about it. It feigned action. In 2021, the Minister Housing, Local Government and Heritage said, "We need ... to make sure that we don't have first-time buyers competing against large investment funds ... That's not a situation that anyone could stand over, nor indeed that I as housing minister could stand over." However, he has stood over it and is standing over it because he knows exactly what is happening. The funds are buying hundreds of homes every single year under the noses of first-time buyers.

In May 2021, the Government scrambled to respond. In truth, its response paid lip service to the issue. A new tax was introduced to give the appearance of action but it was a bluff. I warned at the time that the tax was too low and would not stop investment funds from snapping up homes that should be available for workers and families to buy. That has proven to be the case. Now that the Government is confronted with the facts, it decides to do nothing about it. This Parliament can ensure that a vulture fund never ever buys a home that should be available to workers and families to buy and live in. We can do that by increasing the stamp duty that applies to them and stopping this practice for once and for all. That is the action Sinn Féin put to the Government in the House yesterday, yet it is opposing it. The only logical conclusion anyone can reach is that this is a government that is on the side of the vulture funds, that is happy for this to continue and that is happy for 85% of an entire development in Dublin to be snapped up by an investment fund and rented out at extortionate rates of more than €3,100 per month. To add insult to injury, those funds will not pay a penny in tax on that rental income. This is a government that is obviously comfortable with the fact that more than 1,200 family homes have been snapped up by investment funds in less than three years, is comfortable with the fact that struggling homebuyers are being priced out of the market by these funds and is comfortable with the fact that these funds are increasing their reach and snapping up more homes than ever before.

How can the Minister stand over this when he stood in the House in 2021 and said he would never stand over it? It is happening at a scale we have not seen before, yet the Government is deciding to do nothing. Will he support the Sinn Féin motion and stamp out vulture funds buying family homes from under the noses of first-time buyers?

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as ucht na ceiste. Ar an gcéad dul síos, tá sé tábhachtach a rá go ndearna mé athrú ar dhlí pleanála i mí na Bealtaine 2021. Tá a fhios ag an Teachta faoi sin. Cosnaíonn an t-athrú sin tithe teaghlaigh do dhaoine aonair agus do theaghlaigh. Tá an t-athrú sin ag obair. Tá a fhios ag an Teachta faoi sin freisin. Tá coinníoll ar leith ag baint le 40,000 teach anois iad a dhíol ina n-aonar. Baineann an cheist seo le tithe a bhfuair cead sular athraigh mé an dlí. Tá a fhios ag an Teachta faoi sin freisin. Is é an rud a gcaithfimid breathnú air ná an cháin. Aontaím leis sin.

It is correct to say, which the Deputy neglected to mention, that the planning law was changed. It was changed in May 2021 and since then 40,000 homes, up to October this year, have the owner-occupier guarantee. What pertains in this case, and some others, relates to planning permissions that were granted prior to that date. That was the reason the stamp duty change was brought in. What the Deputy and his colleagues neglected to mention in all of the commentary on this is that we have changed the law on planning and that is working. What we need to look at, which we are doing, is the rate of stamp duty applicable.

We also need to put this in context. If we look at the just less than 1,200 homes that have been purchased in the period since I brought in those planning changes, which relate to planning permissions granted before the change in planning, those homes represent less than 1% of approximately 125,000 property transactions. The planning changes are, therefore, working. Those 1,200 homes are equivalent to the 1,200 homes, in one town alone in Donabate in Fingal, that the Deputy's party objected to - his party colleague is in the front row beside him. Let us talk about context. We are for first-time buyers. We have measures to help them, such as the help-to-buy grant, the first home scheme and the vacancy grant, all of which the Deputy's party would abolish. The Deputy said his party is for first-time buyers but is against every single measure we bring forward, even the measures, such as the first home scheme, which are actually working. There have been nearly 8,000 registrations for that scheme. Some 42,500 families have got their own tax back from their deposits but Sinn Féin would abolish that.

There seems to be a little conflict between Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson and party leader on this because the party spokesperson said he would get rid of those schemes straightaway while the party leader says quietly, when she is talking to people, that there will be no cliff edge. The reality of it is that more first-time buyers are now buying properties, with 600 people a week now drawing down their mortgages, which is the highest rate since 2007. It may disappoint the Deputy to know that later today we will publish the commencement figures for new homes for December. A total of 3,167 commencement notices were received in December, which is a 76% increase on the previous December. That is the highest number of December commencements ever on record. It means that 32,000 homes have been started in the past 12 months. That is progress. It means there is progress on new housing delivery, social housing is being delivered at a rate that we have not seen in more than 50 years, there are affordable homes for people for the first time in a generation, and first-time buyers are able to buy.

While it certainly angers me to see 46 homes sold in Belcamp, that related to planning permission granted in 2019. As the Deputy is someone who is familiar with the law, since he has been a Member for quite some time, I expect he will understand that those retrospective changes to granted planning permissions cannot be made. He does not want to say that. However, 40,000 homes have been protected by the owner-occupier guarantee. The stamp duty levy is something that absolutely needs to be reviewed, but let us put this in context. The Deputy said there is a Belcamp Manor every week but there is not. Out of 125,000 property transactions, approximately 1,000 properties have been purchased by vulture funds, which is less than 1%. We back first-time buyers; Sinn Féin does not.

The Minister can huff and puff all he wants. A Belcamp Manor is happening every month under his watch. He knows it. The figures stand over exactly what I said. There were 623 homes bought by vulture funds and investment funds last year alone.

That is the equivalent of a Belcamp Manor every single month. The majority of those purchases are in the region of Dublin. In the first nine months of last year 70% of completions were apartments. The Minister exempted apartments from all of his planning regulations and stamp duties. Vulture funds are free to go in and buy as many apartments as they wish under this Government. The number of houses completed in the first nine months in Dublin was just over 2,600 homes, some of which were social homes so would never be on the market for ordinary buyers in the first place. Vulture funds bought 623 homes and the Minister tries to pretend that this is a small impact of less than 1%. It is nothing like it. It is having a significant impact in the Dublin market. The Minister told us that he would not stand over it yet he knows about this. Belcamp Manor is no surprise. The Minister for Finance was told in the tax strategy papers last summer that this was happening in the scale of hundreds. That Minister was told that the tax measure was not working. The solution is, as Sinn Féin argued back in 2022, to increase stamp duty on vulture funds to a point where they will not do this. Sinn Féin has a motion before the Dáil and the Government is voting against it. The Minister is feigning outreach and feigning that he will do something. The Government is voting against a solution that will stop vulture funds buying these properties from first-time buyers.

I am simply giving the facts-----

These are the facts.

Relax, Thomas, for a second. I have given the facts. No one wants to see family homes being bulk purchased and that is why I made the planning changes. Whether the Deputy likes it or not those planning changes are working because 40,000 planning permissions are granted now with an owner-occupier guarantee on them, which means they cannot be sold on a bulk basis. That is working. Why are 600 first-time buyers a week able to buy properties and draw down their mortgages at the moment? The Deputy might answer that. They are able to do it because of the support the Government is giving. We will look at this tax measure and we should but let us not say this issue is predominant right the way across the country. The Deputy must put it in context. It is 1% of all property transactions.

It is double digits in Dublin.

The State is investing €5 billion in housing this year. Every single measure we brought forward on housing Sinn Féin has opposed. It opposed the Land Development Agency. It opposed it right the way through.

The Government has not built houses.

We have actually. Whether Sinn Féin likes it or not commencements are up as are completions. We will exceed our target for 2023 as we did in 2022. There are still issues but this Government backs first-time buyers. All that Sinn Féin would do for first-time buyers is abolish every measure there to support them.

The vulture funds are buying hundreds of homes.

Then the Sinn Féin party leader comes up with this great plan of dropping every house price to €300,000. Deputy Louise O'Reilly was asked-----

The vulture funds are buying hundreds of homes.

-----on TV last week how would that be done. She huffed and puffed through that. No one has actually told me. The Deputy might use his time when he comes back in afterwards to explain to the House the Sinn Féin plan to drop house prices to €300,000, how it would work and how long it would take. The Deputy might explain that.

We will build houses.

A little order please.