I was contacted by a lady this week. Her relationship broke down and she lost her job. She said: "I’m left there working 2 jobs while taking care of my 4yo full time and will have to resort to homelessness if I don’t get help." She does not get any tax breaks, yet the vulture funds, based abroad, come in here and buy up second-hand homes. They then go to rent a home back to this woman at huge rents she cannot even afford. She is working two jobs to try to keep a roof over her and her child's head. She pays tax on the income from both of those jobs, but the vulture funds the Government let in here go tax-free on the money that lady is giving them. How can that be right? Another woman contacted me. Herself, her partner and her two kids are living in a room in her parents' house. They got a mortgage, but the mortgage is not enough to buy a house. She said they applied for a mortgage, got it and it would not even buy them a shed. They did everything right and look where it got them. They worked hard. They have jobs. They tried to do everything right. It was the same last week with the new rental Bill. The Government has a fascination with vulture funds, investment funds and cuckoo funds, but what about ordinary people? Does the Minister know what is happening? I looked at Daft.ie today. I challenge the Minister to go online and look at it. A house in my area, in Farranree, was on sale for €225,000. Does the Minister know what it sold for? A house in a working-class estate of old council houses that are 75 or 80 years old sold for €320,000, or €95,000 more than the original asking price. The Government is getting ordinary people who are trying to buy a house into bidding wars against vulture funds. It is not right; it is all wrong. We know people have a limited amount of money, but these vulture funds have no limits. They can do what they want. They can outbid anyone. I will finish off with this. In my constituency of Cork North Central, from the north side all the way down to Glanmire, one in every ten houses is bought by non-owner-occupiers.

Sentiment score: -0.07