People Before Profit has always opposed the tax that is imposed on the family home because it is an unjust and regressive form of taxation.

We think there is an added case, however, given the role the vulture funds, cuckoo funds, buy-to-rent property investors or whatever name one wants to give them who are now controlling and dominating the housing sector are playing in driving up rents and house prices to unaffordable levels, to have a real property tax - not one on family homes but on these people who are wrecking the housing market.

As we have debated on several occasions already, these funds and this capital are leading to the supply of more homes overall and this does have to be seen in conjunction with, for example, a very strong public housing programme. I know the Deputy wants us to build more public housing but we are going to build well in excess of 6,000 public homes this year through local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs.

At the moment, these companies are taxed when the income they have is redistributed to those who invest in these funds. It is liable for tax at either 20% or 25%, depending on whether it is a real estate investment trust or an Irish real estate fund. They are taxed in the same way a pension is taxed. The income is taxed when it is distributed out of the fund. Do I currently have any proposals to change that taxation again in the future? I have changed this taxation regime in the past, dependent on concerns that I and my officials have had regarding efforts made to minimise tax. The option is always open to me to make further changes in how they are taxed if such issues are presented to me again. That is the main reason I would be looking to change the taxation of those funds at the moment.

Ultimately, they do play a role in terms of the supply of more homes. I appreciate how much they are contested and the political debate in respect of them but it fundamentally boils down to whether we want the savings that exist in other parts of Europe and the world to play a role in building more homes in Ireland. I believe those savings do have a role to play in more homes being built in this country and that is why a stable taxation regime in respect of them, as we have had in recent years, is appropriate.

That sounds good but it is just not what is happening on the ground. We are going to have to blow this fantasy out of the water. As I have pointed out on several occasions, zero council houses were built last year in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. We just got the figures. Next year, five will be built. There is a lot of construction going on in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. The Minister should drive out there to have a look. There are strategic housing developments, SHDs, going up all over the place. These are private build-to-rent developments that will be rented for €2,200 a month if one is lucky. There is an opportunity cost here, if one likes, to use economic jargon. If all the construction workers are building unaffordable profit-driven developments, they are not building council houses. The facts are clear on the ground. The council is delivering nothing. The Minister referred to AHBs. Who is building for the AHBs? It is the same property investors and they are charging a fortune. This is nonsense. We need to stop these people wrecking our market and start building affordable and public housing.

Nevertheless, the social housing list in Dún Laoghaire is being addressed through AHBs and the provision of housing generally. I know my colleague from Dún Laoghaire objects to SHDs. He raised a particular development in Glenageary, namely, Cualanor, in the House several weeks ago. He objected to one down the road as well. I was in Cualanor on Saturday and I saw all the houses and apartments where several hundred, if not 1,000, people are living with their families. It has a beautiful small playground for kids.

The Deputy raised it a couple of weeks ago and he is objecting to another set of apartments being build 500 m up the road. I would like to see housing developed right across Dún Laoghaire for the people who need it. I know the families, as does Deputy Boyd Barrett, who need to move into different types of accommodation right across our constituency. There is a finite amount of land that can be developed. There is sea on one side of the constituency. It is an urban area. There is a need to build upwards to accommodate the growing population of people who have been living there for a long time, as well as people who want to come here, work here and develop our economy. The Deputy does not want housing here; he does not want housing there. He tells the Minister and the Government to solve the housing crisis, but just not on his territory.

As we have heard from the exchange that has just taken place, there are more homes being built in the constituency represented by Deputy Boyd Barrett. It is not for me to say that; Deputy Carroll MacNeill is more of an expert than I am in that regard. Those homes are being built. They are part of the increased number of homes that are being built in the country overall. We know more need to be built but more than 20,000 homes were delivered last year, more than 30,000 homes have been commenced and more than 35,000 homes are in the planning process. That is what is happening. Those are homes that are being built.

As regards what is happening in the social housing programme we have in place, we have a record budget in place now to deliver those homes. Is it not the case that a share of all the homes the Deputy sees being built across the constituency he represents are being set aside for public use and will deliver more public and social housing for families who need it?

My constituency colleague being sent in to mark me is an interesting new phenomenon. This is a new tactic on the part of Fine Gael. It does not matter.

I have no interest in marking the Deputy. I am just setting the facts straight as the Deputy is well able to do. I have no difficulty-----

I have a public office that is visited by people who are homeless and cannot afford stuff; the Deputy does not. I have to deal with------

The Deputy is right. I do not use State funds for that. I have to meet them at my own cost.

I have to deal with the families who are being thrown off the housing list.

I meet people at my own cost. I do not use State funding for things like that.

Deputies, please.

The rents in the places the Deputy is talking about are €2,200. They are not affordable for the people on the housing list and that is why people are ending up in homeless accommodation. There are 5,000 families on the various housing lists. They have been waiting 15 to 20 years because all the construction workers are building developments for profit. We get a tiny proportion of those at a huge cost but, meanwhile, those construction workers are not down at Shanganagh Castle building on public land the public housing we need. They are not inputting the water infrastructure on the Old Connaught Road or up in Stepaside where there is public land on which we should be building public housing.

Nobody is being sent in to mark anybody here.

I have noticed the new tactic. Fair enough. It is all politics.

Deputy, please.

I would have thought, given Deputy Boyd Barrett's prowess as a public speaker and the way in which he------

I am not objecting; I am just pointing it out.

------tackles me regularly, that he would be up for debate and discussion as opposed to, frankly, the feigned outrage he indulged in just there.

It is not feigned at all.

The Deputy is entirely-----

It is real anger.

Well the Deputy appears to have recovered from it pretty quickly. We are surely-----

Every week, I come in here enraged by the housing crisis in my area. There is nothing feigned about it.

Can we let the Minister respond, please?

I would have thought the Deputy would welcome debate and that a perspective on what is happening in his constituency can be legitimately given in this Dáil by a fellow Deputy who also represents that constituency. I am well aware of the level of housing need that is there. I am well aware of the anxiety and trauma it is inflicting upon so many but I simply make the case to the Deputy that with the funding we are putting in, we will see and are seeing more public housing being built. These funds, which I know the Deputy is against, play a role, particularly in delivering more apartments.