Mary Lou McDonald has launched a blistering attack on the Government over housing.
She linked both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to greedy property speculators and developers and declared: “The day of the developer being king has to end.”
The Sinn Féin leader held both Government parties historically accountable for the housing crisis that the country is now facing.
And she claimed that up to six of every 10 houses sold in Dublin are being snapped up by vulture funds.
Ms McDonald said that Fianna Fáil had created the crisis with the boom before the crash, while Fine Gael had “let the vultures loose” over the last decade.
Recent revelations have shown that vulture funds have now moved away from buying apartment blocks in cities, where they charge huge rents, and are now moving into the suburbs where they are outbidding first time buyers.
It is estimated that the vultures have snapped up almost €700million worth of property nationwide this year alone.
Ms McDonald told the Dáil that six out of 10 homes sold in Dublin were taken off the market in 2019, with the claim being that funds bought them after this.
Younger generations are now caught in a vicious cycle where sky-high rents mean they can’t afford to save for a deposit for a home of their own, while the vulture funds who own their rental properties are now also snapping up their potential first real homes.
Ms McDonald told Taoiseach Micheál Martin during Tuesday’s Leaders’ Questions session that: “The mood of a generation is one of exasperation.”
She added that for the developers it is a case of, “heads they win, tails they win.”
Mr Martin replied that the Government is “committed to 12,750 social and affordable homes this year.”
He said that “the biggest player right now in housing is the Government.”
Mr Martin also pointed out that Sinn Féin are voting against many social housing projects being proposed at council level all over the country every month, including for 500 units in Tallaght, Dublin, earlier this year.
