Housing Provision
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-10
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

The policy every Minister for Finance undertakes is to review all taxation measures in the context of a budget. That is what we will do this year, as we do each year. We have already shown that we have a willingness to act and to take further policy measures to make sure the intervention was having more of the required effect.
The Deputy calls them "vulture funds" because that is a loaded term. We need private investment in the housing market. That is not just my view; it is the view of the Housing Commission. We need people to come into this country and invest because we also need rental properties in this country. Houses are required for the rental market. As of the last census, there were 330,000 units in the private rental sector, of which 62% were outside Dublin. We need to make sure we also have a rental supply. I have talked and the Governments I have been in – this Government and the last Government – have talked about using the taxation system to disincentivise the practice and to collect more revenue for the State where the practice was carried out. We have never suggested that there is not a role for private investment in relation to housing supply. That might be a point on which we differ but it is a point which the Housing Commission also recognises.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-10