I welcome this Sinn Féin motion, particularly because it focuses on vulture funds, investment funds, cuckoo funds or whatever you want to call them. We are talking about large-scale property ownership where they buy a property and sell it on or rent it at a massive profit. Tomorrow yet another family in my constituency is facing the sheriff. They have gone through all of the court process to try to save the home they have rented for ten years. They are actually a Palestinian family, which is ironic. Many Palestinians are facing homelessness, in my experience, having escaped occupation or genocide. This family has lived and worked in the area for a long time. Their property is owned by the Vestry group. It is a complex web of companies all with their fingers in the Irish home market, or should we say the Irish homeless market. Vestry has numerous cases at the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, where it is evicting families on a regular basis. Dublin City Council offered to buy a property from Vestry but Vestry declined the market rate. It has a vacant apartment next door to one particular family, whose case was highlighted in an article, but it has no interest in letting that family remain or rent in the neighbouring property. This is because they want to get a new tenant in at a higher rate, thanks to the Government's new laws that actually encourage this, and make so much more money. That is also the case with the Palestinian family in my constituency. This family is currently paying €1,600 but there is no doubt that Vestry will get another potential €1,000 on top of that. The community action tenants union, CATU, has a Vestry hotline. This is how bad it is. I would love to hear what the attitude of the Minister, Deputy Browne, to this is. In 2023 The Ditch highlighted that Vestry controls 850 homes and is making €20 million in profits. Richard Moyles, one of the shareholders, has many other links. Silk Shadow Limited, one of the minority owners of this company, was bailed out by NAMA in 2011. Its €22 million loans were bailed out by NAMA and the taxpayer. It is now back in business and raking it in on the back of evictions yet again. Moyles is also a director of Be Lettings, which has a portfolio of homes and apartments and-----

Sentiment score: 0.07

Yes. It is just factual and it is in the newspapers anyway. This is all from articles I have researched. Be Lettings and Vestry buy and sell from each other. It is unbelievable stuff. One effect of such house flipping in Dublin 15, in my own constituency, is that a three-bedroom, two-bathroom semi-detached house in Dublin 15 that was bought in November 2019 for €287,000 was sold in January 2025 for approximately €400,000. The transaction involved the same two companies that own each other. What is the Minister going to do about this? Seriously. As I said in a previous debate, I have to ring the sheriff to try to get these evictions put back. I cannot be the only TD in the House doing this. There must be other TDs doing the same. It is not my job to try to reorganise accommodation for people. If anything, it is the Minister's job. I also want to make a point about the statutory declaration that these companies have to give. They can just get it from one of their other companies, and then they do not really sell on the property. I do not doubt that many of the new tenants who are going to be put into these evicted properties will be HAP tenants, which means the State will be paying the increase in the rent. There seems to be absolutely no interest from this Government in dealing with the vulture funds and investment funds that are eking out massive profits off the back of evictions and misery in suburbs, towns and counties throughout the State.

Sentiment score: 0.03