Housing Crisis: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]

The following motion was moved by Deputy Rory Hearne on Wednesday, 19 February 2025:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that:

- the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and former Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O'Brien TD, repeatedly promised to deliver 40,000 homes last year but spectacularly failed, with just 30,330 homes delivered;

- housing delivery is not just slowing down, it is reducing, with a drop in housing delivery of nearly 7 per cent between 2024 and 2023;

- members of the Government have briefed the media that without a dramatic reset of housing policy, there is virtually no chance of reaching their own housing targets;

- the Taoiseach has stated this reset will involve "very politically difficult decisions" and said the Government needs to "pivot more strongly to the private sector";

- in an interview on RTÉ radio on 9th February, 2025, the Taoiseach signalled the imminent end of Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs), saying the Government could replace them at the end of this year;

- within 24 hours of these remarks being made, the share price of the State's largest private landlord, Irish Residential Real Estate Investment Trust (IRES REIT), soared to its highest level in eight months;

- rents are already at record highs, having more than doubled in a decade, and increased by 34 per cent in the lifetime of the last Government; and

- 83 per cent of private tenancies in the country are in RPZs;

acknowledges that:

- a report published last year by the Central Bank of Ireland entitled "Institutional Investment and Residential Rental Market Dynamics", found that 78 per cent of the homes owned by investment funds were bought as existing properties;

- the same report found that institutional landlords increase monthly rents by about 4.1 per cent more than other landlords;

- since 2021, when the previous Government introduced a 10 per cent stamp duty levy on the bulk purchase of homes, investors have bulk bought half a billion euros worth of residential property; and

- in Budget 2025, the Government increased the stamp duty levy, which does not apply to apartments, from 10 per cent to 15 per cent;

further notes that:

- in 2020, then Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD, said investment funds were engaging in "aggressive behaviour to avoid tax" and said the Revenue Commissioners were investigating and compiling a report;

- the report from the Revenue Commissioners was never published, with the Finance Minister claiming in the Dáil on 13th February, 2025, that "tax compliance issues" had been dealt with via legislation;

- however, since 2020, investment funds controlling more than €28 billion worth of Irish property have reduced their tax payments by half, from €74 million to €32 million;

- the proportion of new housing available for sale has nearly halved in the last six years;

- in Dublin city in 2023, 94 per cent of all new housing was apartments, 98 per cent of which was solely available to rent; and

- first time buyers bought just 75 new homes in Dublin City in that year; and

calls on Government to:

- close loopholes which allow investment funds aggressively avoid tax;

- increase the stamp duty levy on the bulk purchase of homes to 100 per cent, and extend it to apartments;

- instead of introducing further tax breaks for developers and vulture funds, access European Union streams of finance like InvestEU and the European Regional Development Fund;

- introduce a savings scheme like the French Livret A model, to leverage some of the €160 billion in Irish household savings, to invest in affordable housing;

- provide increased and early-stage finance to approved housing bodies and local authorities, so they can ramp up the delivery of genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy; and

- retain RPZs, until there is an alternate system ready to put in place which can protect renters.

Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"acknowledges that:

— Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland, sets out an ambitious multi-annual programme that seeks to deliver more than 300,000 new homes between 2022 and 2030;

— since Housing for All was published in September 2021, almost 120,000 homes have been added to the National Housing Stock, with delivery of 92,500 new homes in the three years from 2022 to 2024, representing a considerable 49 per cent increase on the quantum delivered in the previous three-year period;

— while the policy aim is to reach, if not exceed, the target in each successive year, the primary goal is to maintain an upward trajectory in supply and in line with or ahead of the overall target over the longer-term;

— delivery of affordable housing supports will significantly exceed 2023 outturn, while the supply of new build social homes continues to be at a level higher than it has been for many years;

— the development finance required to deliver 50,000 homes per year is in the region of €20 billion annually, and capital is needed from a range of sources to ensure the provision of private, social, and affordable homes; and

— the Housing for All Action Plan Update, published in November 2022, included a commitment to 'Review the operation of the private rental sector and report on policy considerations', and the housing Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) have played a key role in protecting renters during a period of historic inflation, and that is why they are remaining in place during the review;

further notes that:

— the Irish Real Estate Fund (IREF) legislation was introduced in 2016, to address concerns regarding the use of collective investment vehicles by non-residents to invest in Irish property;

— on 22nd October, 2024, following Government approval, the then Minister for Finance, Jack Chambers TD, published the Funds Sector 2030: A Framework for Open, Resilient & Developing Markets', a wide-ranging review of the funds and asset management sector, and this review fulfilled a recommendation of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare 2022 report, which called for 'an examination of the regimes for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) the IREFs and their role in the property sector, including how they support housing policy objectives';

— European Union funding streams are already accessed in the context of housing delivery in Ireland, and in this regard, European multilateral banks, such as the European Investment Bank Group, and the Council of Europe Development Bank have already played a role in delivering affordable and social homes in Ireland, and provided financing to bodies such as the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) and the Housing Finance Agency (HFA);

— under the term of the last Government, a number of measures were taken to restrict the bulk buying of homes by institutional investors, such as:

— a higher rate of Stamp Duty on the acquisition of houses situated in the State, where a person acquires at least 10 such houses during any 12-month period, was implemented in October 2024, and this rate was increased to 15 per cent from 2nd October, 2024;

— the Section 28 Guidelines for Planning Authorities ‘Regulation of Commercial Institutional Investment in Housing’, issued in May 2021, aimed to prevent multiple housing and duplex units being sold to a single buyer, providing an 'owner-occupier' guarantee, by ensuring that new 'own-door' houses and duplex units in lower-density housing developments can no longer be bulk-purchased by institutional investors in a manner that causes the displacement of individual purchasers or social and affordable housing, including cost-rental, and initial estimates for this period indicate that these Section 28 guidelines have continued to be impactful and have led to a further increase in home ownership through the use of planning conditions; and

— from May 2021 to November 2024, a combined total of 55,684 residential units were estimated to have received planning permission with conditions restricting the bulk buying or multiple sales to a single purchaser; and

— the Housing Agency is currently undertaking a review of RPZs and the expected timeline for a completed review is Q1 2025, and the review will consider whether RPZs should be continued as is, removed, modified, or replaced, and the extension to the Residential Tenancies Act in May last year, ensures predictability for tenants while this review takes place;

recognises that:

— the Housing Commission have advised that in order to create a housing system that functions across tenures and for all people, we need diverse and stable sources of financing;

— this capital is needed to ensure the provision of private, social, and affordable homes, homes of all tenures for families across the country at all price points;

— following on from a review of the rental market in July 2024, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, has requested the Housing Agency to undertake a review which will assess the operation of RPZs and it is expected that this review will be completed by end of Q1 2025, and any potential future policy options that arise from this review will be fully considered by the Government and implemented as required; and

— the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, is continuing to deliver accelerated funding schemes across the affordable and social programmes which have the potential to unlock delivery of schemes in good locations, while enabling additional supply, with over 60 per cent of active approved projects under the Cost Rental Equity Loan being accelerated projects scheduled for completion between 2025 – 2028; and

affirms Government efforts to:

— diversify sources of investment, noting the level of investment required in the long term cannot be solely the responsibility of the State, it will also require a very significant level of private investment, including appropriate institutional capital investment which is essential for the delivery of critically needed private rented stock;

— engage with domestic lenders to ensure that the banking sector is appropriately using its lending capacity to support the development of new housing nationwide;

— develop new financing sources, especially for brownfield sites and small builders, with support from Home Building Finance Ireland, the HFA and domestic banks, as well as State support of equity investment;

— enhance protections for tenants, while appropriately vindicating landlords' constitutionally protected property rights, through measures introduced by successive recent Governments via the Residential Tenancies Acts;

— build on the significant number of social and affordable homes provided in 2024, expanding State investment, with almost €5 billion available for the delivery of social, affordable and cost-rental homes in 2025, supplemented by Land Development Agency investment and HFA lending, which will bring the overall capital provision to over €6 billion; and

— deliver on the far-ranging commitments in the Programme for Government and informed by the Housing Commission's proposals for the long-term reform of the housing system, accepting this is an appropriate response to the current housing challenges which Ireland is now facing.".

- (Minister of State at the Department of Finance)

An Ceann Comhairle

I must now deal with a postponed division relating to the motion regarding the housing crisis. On Wednesday, 19 February 2025, on the question, "That the amendment to the motion be agreed to", a division was claimed and in accordance with Standing Order 80(2), that division must be taken now.

Amendment put:

The Dáil divided: Tá, 88; Níl, 69; Staon, 0.

Tá

Aird, William.
Ardagh, Catherine.
Boland, Grace.
Brabazon, Tom.
Brennan, Brian.
Brennan, Shay.
Brophy, Colm.
Browne, James.
Burke, Colm.
Burke, Peter.
Butler, Mary.
Butterly, Paula.
Buttimer, Jerry.
Byrne, Malcolm.
Byrne, Thomas.
Cahill, Michael.
Callaghan, Catherine.
Calleary, Dara.
Canney, Seán.
Carrigy, Micheál.
Carroll MacNeill, Jennifer.
Chambers, Jack.
Cleere, Peter 'Chap'.
Clendennen, John.
Collins, Niall.
Connolly, John.
Cooney, Joe.
Crowe, Cathal.
Cummins, John.
Currie, Emer.
Daly, Martin.
Dempsey, Aisling.
Devlin, Cormac.
Dillon, Alan.
Dolan, Albert.
Dooley, Timmy.
Feighan, Frankie.
Fleming, Seán.
Gallagher, Pat the Cope.
Geoghegan, James.
Grealish, Noel.
Harkin, Marian.
Healy-Rae, Danny.
Healy-Rae, Michael.
Heneghan, Barry.
Heydon, Martin.
Higgins, Emer.
Keogh, Keira.
Lahart, John.
Lowry, Michael.
Martin, Micheál.
Maxwell, David.
McAuliffe, Paul.
McCarthy, Noel.
McConalogue, Charlie.
McCormack, Tony.
McEntee, Helen.
McGrath, Mattie.
McGrath, Séamus.
McGreehan, Erin.
McGuinness, John.
Moran, Kevin Boxer.
Moynihan, Aindrias.
Moynihan, Michael.
Moynihan, Shane.
Murnane O'Connor, Jennifer.
Murphy, Michael.
Naughton, Hildegarde.
Neville, Joe.
O'Brien, Darragh.
O'Callaghan, Jim.
O'Connell, Maeve.
O'Connor, James.
O'Donnell, Kieran.
O'Meara, Ryan.
O'Shea, John Paul.
O'Sullivan, Christopher.
Ó Fearghaíl, Seán.
Ó Muirí, Naoise.
Richmond, Neale.
Roche, Peter.
Scanlon, Eamon.
Smith, Brendan.
Smyth, Niamh.
Timmins, Edward.
Toole, Gillian.
Troy, Robert.
Ward, Barry.

Níl

Ahern, Ciarán.
Bacik, Ivana.
Bennett, Cathy.
Boyd Barrett, Richard.
Brady, John.
Buckley, Pat.
Byrne, Joanna.
Carthy, Matt.
Clarke, Sorca.
Collins, Michael.
Connolly, Catherine.
Conway-Walsh, Rose.
Cronin, Réada.
Crowe, Seán.
Cullinane, David.
Cummins, Jen.
Daly, Pa.
Devine, Máire.
Doherty, Pearse.
Donnelly, Paul.
Ellis, Dessie.
Farrelly, Aidan.
Farrell, Mairéad.
Fitzmaurice, Michael.
Gannon, Gary.
Gibney, Sinéad.
Gould, Thomas.
Graves, Ann.
Hayes, Eoin.
Healy, Seamus.
Hearne, Rory.
Kelly, Alan.
Kenny, Eoghan.
Kenny, Martin.
Kerrane, Claire.
Lawless, Paul.
Lawlor, George.
Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
McGettigan, Donna.
McGuinness, Conor D.
Mitchell, Denise.
Mythen, Johnny.
Nash, Ged.
Newsome Drennan, Natasha.
Ní Raghallaigh, Shónagh.
Nolan, Carol.
O'Callaghan, Cian.
O'Donoghue, Richard.
O'Donoghue, Robert.
O'Flynn, Ken.
O'Gorman, Roderic.
O'Hara, Louis.
O'Reilly, Louise.
O'Rourke, Darren.
Ó Broin, Eoin.
Ó Laoghaire, Donnchadh.
Ó Murchú, Ruairí.
Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
Ó Súilleabháin, Fionntán.
Quaide, Liam.
Quinlivan, Maurice.
Rice, Pádraig.
Sheehan, Conor.
Smith, Duncan.
Stanley, Brian.
Tóibín, Peadar.
Wall, Mark.
Ward, Mark.
Whitmore, Jennifer.

Staon

Tellers: Tá, Deputies Mary Butler and Emer Currie; Níl, Deputies Rory Hearne and Jennifer Whitmore.

Amendment declared carried.

Question put: "That the motion, as amended, be agreed to."

The Dáil divided: Tá, 88; Níl, 69; Staon, 0.

Tá

Aird, William.
Ardagh, Catherine.
Boland, Grace.
Brabazon, Tom.
Brennan, Brian.
Brennan, Shay.
Brophy, Colm.
Browne, James.
Burke, Colm.
Burke, Peter.
Butler, Mary.
Butterly, Paula.
Buttimer, Jerry.
Byrne, Malcolm.
Byrne, Thomas.
Cahill, Michael.
Callaghan, Catherine.
Calleary, Dara.
Canney, Seán.
Carrigy, Micheál.
Carroll MacNeill, Jennifer.
Chambers, Jack.
Cleere, Peter 'Chap'.
Clendennen, John.
Collins, Niall.
Connolly, John.
Cooney, Joe.
Crowe, Cathal.
Cummins, John.
Currie, Emer.
Daly, Martin.
Dempsey, Aisling.
Devlin, Cormac.
Dillon, Alan.
Dolan, Albert.
Dooley, Timmy.
Feighan, Frankie.
Fleming, Seán.
Gallagher, Pat the Cope.
Geoghegan, James.
Grealish, Noel.
Harkin, Marian.
Healy-Rae, Danny.
Healy-Rae, Michael.
Heneghan, Barry.
Heydon, Martin.
Higgins, Emer.
Keogh, Keira.
Lahart, John.
Lowry, Michael.
Martin, Micheál.
Maxwell, David.
McAuliffe, Paul.
McCarthy, Noel.
McConalogue, Charlie.
McCormack, Tony.
McEntee, Helen.
McGrath, Mattie.
McGrath, Séamus.
McGreehan, Erin.
McGuinness, John.
Moran, Kevin Boxer.
Moynihan, Aindrias.
Moynihan, Michael.
Moynihan, Shane.
Murnane O'Connor, Jennifer.
Murphy, Michael.
Naughton, Hildegarde.
Neville, Joe.
O'Brien, Darragh.
O'Callaghan, Jim.
O'Connell, Maeve.
O'Connor, James.
O'Donnell, Kieran.
O'Meara, Ryan.
O'Shea, John Paul.
O'Sullivan, Christopher.
Ó Fearghaíl, Seán.
Ó Muirí, Naoise.
Richmond, Neale.
Roche, Peter.
Scanlon, Eamon.
Smith, Brendan.
Smyth, Niamh.
Timmins, Edward.
Toole, Gillian.
Troy, Robert.
Ward, Barry.

Níl

Ahern, Ciarán.
Bacik, Ivana.
Bennett, Cathy.
Boyd Barrett, Richard.
Brady, John.
Buckley, Pat.
Byrne, Joanna.
Carthy, Matt.
Clarke, Sorca.
Collins, Michael.
Connolly, Catherine.
Conway-Walsh, Rose.
Cronin, Réada.
Crowe, Seán.
Cullinane, David.
Cummins, Jen.
Daly, Pa.
Devine, Máire.
Doherty, Pearse.
Donnelly, Paul.
Ellis, Dessie.
Farrelly, Aidan.
Farrell, Mairéad.
Fitzmaurice, Michael.
Gannon, Gary.
Gibney, Sinéad.
Gould, Thomas.
Graves, Ann.
Hayes, Eoin.
Healy, Seamus.
Hearne, Rory.
Kelly, Alan.
Kenny, Eoghan.
Kenny, Martin.
Kerrane, Claire.
Lawless, Paul.
Lawlor, George.
Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
McGettigan, Donna.
McGuinness, Conor D.
Mitchell, Denise.
Mythen, Johnny.
Nash, Ged.
Newsome Drennan, Natasha.
Ní Raghallaigh, Shónagh.
Nolan, Carol.
O'Callaghan, Cian.
O'Donoghue, Richard.
O'Donoghue, Robert.
O'Flynn, Ken.
O'Gorman, Roderic.
O'Hara, Louis.
O'Reilly, Louise.
O'Rourke, Darren.
Ó Broin, Eoin.
Ó Laoghaire, Donnchadh.
Ó Murchú, Ruairí.
Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
Ó Súilleabháin, Fionntán.
Quaide, Liam.
Quinlivan, Maurice.
Rice, Pádraig.
Sheehan, Conor.
Smith, Duncan.
Stanley, Brian.
Tóibín, Peadar.
Wall, Mark.
Ward, Mark.
Whitmore, Jennifer.

Staon

Tellers: Tá, Deputies Mary Butler and Emer Currie; Níl, Deputies Rory Hearne and Jennifer Whitmore.

Question declared carried.

Is féidir teacht ar Cheisteanna Scríofa ar www.oireachtas.ie.

Written Answers are published on the Oireachtas website.

Cuireadh an Dáil ar athló ar 7.50 p.m. go dtí 9 a.m., Déardaoin, an 20 Feabhra 2025.

The Dáil adjourned at 7.50 p.m. until 9 a.m. on Thursday, 20 February 2025.

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht - Wednesday, 19 Feb 2025