I thank Sinn Féin and Deputy Doherty for bringing forward this motion, which I fully support. The Government says that investing in funds helps to increase supply, but that is false. In Donegal, thousands of homes have already been removed from the market because of defective concrete. Families cannot sell. Young people cannot buy. Normal movement has collapsed. To allow these homes to be treated as financial assets is not just wrong; it is immoral. This is not just a local problem. When investors actively push prices up across the country, it makes homes harder to buy and it forces people into already stretched rental markets. The evidence is clear that buying homes for profit does not solve the crisis; it actually makes the crisis worse. The human cost is obvious. Parents are locked out of their own communities, children are forced to leave their communities and families are living in uncertainty. Housing is a right; it is not a commodity. Policy must protect people, and not investors. This is not about markets or profit margins: it is about mothers, fathers, sons and daughters whose homes and futures are being sold to the highest bidder. If we cannot protect them, we are failing, the Government is failing and society is failing. The Government is talking about regeneration. We need action, not regeneration. We need action now.

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