That is completely untrue.

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 …

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 …

It is double digits in Dublin.

The vulture funds are buying hundreds of homes.

The vulture funds are buying hundreds of homes.

Hear, hear.

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is in the Chamber and she may want to take this question. I raise the important and sensitive issue of the closure of the Letterkenny-based child and adolescent counselling service. It is the only one in our county and it is a vital amenity that provides services right across the county, not just in Letterkenny but elsewhere. Some 120 clients avail of counselling services at any time, with hundreds on the waiting list. It has been delivering a service across the county since 20…

We have asked that the HSE and Tusla directly engage with people.

I will finish on this point.

Has the Minister of State had a chance to intervene to date and can she shed any light on the matter?

Hear, hear.

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — the housing crisis continues to spiral out of control; — residential property prices nationally have increased by 28 per cent since this Government took office; — residential property prices in Dublin have increased by 21 per cent since this Government took office; — high rents and high residential property prices are making it increasingly difficult for workers and families to purchase and own their own home; — the recent bulk purchase of 46 homes aimed at individual buyers…

I thank all the Deputies who spoke in support of the motion. I appreciate their contributions and I note the amendments that are before the Dáil as well. We have a long track record on this. We have been proposing amendments to the finance Bill for many years before this ever became a public issue. Our motion before the House today calls for at least 17%. That number has been looked at because, from an earlier analysis in terms of return investment, we believe anything less than that would mean that it would be abs…

Honest to God. To be generous to the Minister of State, the brass neck award goes to him. He is the Minister of State and his is the party that wrecked the bloody economy, that threw thousands of families into negative equity and ruined their lives. Many of them had to get on planes because of what his party did in the housing crisis. He sits there with a brass neck and tries to lecture me because we do not believe it is right that somebody has to earn €127,000 to buy a house in this city. We do not believe it is r…

Shame on you for supporting house prices and wanting them to go up further. Shame on you for allowing the vultures to buy apartments over first-time buyers.

Shame on you for knowing what is happening in the housing market in this city and beyond and still taking the side of the vultures over ordinary families and people. The decision will be taken here.

Every person including the Green Party should show a bit of back bone here and vote to make sure the vultures are not allowed to do what they have done in Belcamp Manor or elsewhere.

I am fine. I am worried about the blood pressure of people who are seeing a housing estate being built and then because-----

-----and then because of Government policy, vulture funds buy the whole estate. The Ceann Comhairle can laugh all he wants but what is happening is absolutely disgusting. The Government knows fine well what is happening and is allowing it.