The message is very clear here. We need the Minister to ban investment funds from buying family homes. There are many things that investment funds can invest in and buy, but not family homes. The Minister has the power to change that. Young people and working families are being forced out of the market by vulture funds with unlimited reserves that are outbidding them not just of homes, but of their futures. My colleagues and I on these benches have been highlighting this scandal for years. I remember doing it when I was in the local authority. I thank Deputy Doherty for bringing this motion forward this evening and for all the work he has done in this area. Since the higher stamp duty rate was first introduced in 2021, over 2,000 homes have been bulk purchased, hoovered up and taken off the market. Taking these homes from people who desperately need them is thievery in plain sight. In one of my offices alone, in the last week there have been 15 notices to quit. That is just in a few days. Investment funds should not be permitted to bulk buy family homes full stop. Homes are for living in, not for speculating, stockpiling and squeezing profit out of hard-working people. Across Mayo, I am hearing the real-life consequences of allowing vulture funds to outbid ordinary couples. They are bulk buying homes that should be available to young people who are hoping to start their lives and families together. Any home snapped up by a vulture fund is one less home for a nurse, teacher or young couple saving desperately for a deposit. It reduces supply, increases competition and, inevitably, drives prices up, which are up 47.7% since 2020. Young people are being priced out of their own communities. The result is soaring house prices and extortionate rents that are in no way a reflection of local incomes. I know families facing no-fault evictions. As I said, it is happening everywhere across Mayo. Rental properties are scarce and unaffordable.

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