156. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the steps he is taking to ensure that flood insurance is extended to the approximately 290,000 buildings in the State that have limited or no flood insurance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10449/26]
Sentiment score: -0.03
This question relates to flood insurance. We have seen floods destroy homes, communities and businesses alike. The Central Bank's figures show that 290,000 buildings in the State are at risk of flooding and that the owners struggle to access flood insurance. Almost 100% of those have either limited cover or no cover at all. This does not even include properties at risk from coastal flooding. What actions is the Government taking to make sure that flood insurance will be available to everyone who needs it?
Sentiment score: -0.25
Lack of access to insurance can affect communities and businesses in a very real way. The Minister of State mentioned the Central Bank report. In 2024, it reported as follows: "The occurrence of a severe flood could leave households and businesses with high levels of uninsured losses, impairing economic recovery from a flood event"., It concluded that there is "a serious risk of complacency". Everything the Minister has said is more of the same complacency. Indeed, when the Tánaiste, who is seated beside him, was Minister ten years ago he talked about flood insurance. Ten years on, nothing has happened. We have the same situation over and over again. The Minister of State is talking about more high-level reports, meetings and so on. Right now, we have a situation where private insurance companies pick and choose who they will extend flood insurance to. We do not allow that to happen with health insurance companies. We do not say they are allowed to only pick people who are healthy, young and all of that, but we let flood insurers get away with this. What is the Government going to do? We can roll back the tapes ten years. In fairness to the Tánaiste, when he was the Minister responsible for the OPW, he said we needed to deal with this issue. However, ten years on we are still not dealing with it and there are still no solutions. When is the complacency going to end?
Sentiment score: -0.04
The problem is that we have been hearing the same thing for the past ten years regarding task forces, multi-agency groups and the rest. That is all fine. We have to do some of that work to get the results and ideas. However, the Minister of State talks about his plans delivering but ten years on, they have not delivered for these households. Thousands of houses and businesses across the State have no insurance and are at risk of flooding. That is the problem here. The Government does not have a concrete plan. Last year, when we raised this issue, Fine Gael went away and met with the CEOs of insurance companies and told them they should improve the level of cover for areas with demountable flood defences. Let us park demountable flood defences, however, because only 4,500 people use them in the first instance. The vast majority, 250,000 people, do not use them. The reality is the insurance companies have not done anything on this issue. If private insurance companies are unwilling to provide insurance cover, the State needs to address that. Across the European Union, there is a recognition and acceptance that the State needs to step in where the sector fails. Is the Government going to deal with this issue and does it have a potential State-supported scheme on the table?
Sentiment score: -0.04
158. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the total number of homes and total value of homes that have been bulk purchased each year, and subject to the higher rate of stamp duty, since the higher rate was introduced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10450/26]
Sentiment score: 0.14
This Government, Fine Gael in particular, has a long history of welcoming in the vulture funds to snap up Irish homes. Only because of rightful public anger at vulture funds bulk-purchasing homes a number of years ago under the nose of ordinary workers and families have we seen any pressure put on, and action by, the Government. The Minister committed that this practice would end. Has it ended or is it still going on? If it is still going on, how many family homes were bulk-purchased by vulture funds last year and in previous years?
Sentiment score: -0.17
Under review.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Minister promised us he was going to end this practice. He has just told the House that nearly 300 family homes were bought up by vulture funds last year, and he is going to keep it "under review". Under his watch, the Government is sitting by and allowing vulture funds to buy up family homes, a practice he promised over and over again that he would end. A total of 293 homes that should have been bought by ordinary workers and families last year were snapped up by corporate landlords and vulture funds. What happened to the Minister claiming he was going to stop all of this? When he was Taoiseach, he wrote to the finance Minister saying not enough was being done to stop the bulk-purchasing of homes. He argued that bulk-purchasing of homes needed for first-time buyers could not be tolerated. It appears now that he has tolerated 293 of them being bulk-purchased last year. The measures are not enough. The measures were in place all of last year. What is the Minister going to do, or is this, again, just something Simon says? I would ban vulture funds bulk-purchasing homes. It should be stopped. It is immoral. There is a crisis that the Government parties have created and the Minister is now facilitating vulture funds to snap up hundreds of homes every single year, and we are supposed to have cold comfort that the trends are going down.
Sentiment score: -0.22
The stamp duty measure was introduced back in 2021. Does the Minister know that vulture funds purchased more homes last year than they did in 2021? He said the trend is going down every year. That is not true; the figure actually increased in 2022. The 293 homes purchased are homes that people are queuing for and want to have as their family home, their forever home, and vulture funds are buying them up because they have unlimited means. The Minister can splice and dice this any way he likes. He promised he was going to end this practice, which can be ended. Stop tinkering about the edges, and ban it. Stop imposing taxation on vulture funds because they have unlimited means. Does the Minister know why? It is because he provided them with a sweetheart deal. They do not pay any tax on rental income, the €3,000 they rent out the properties for. This is why they can pay the Government's tax. We cannot get away from the fact that hundreds of properties that should be available to families to start off their own homes are being snapped up by vulture funds. Ban the practice. Stop tinkering around the edges. I hear the Tánaiste is not even considering any other policy bar reviews. The facts speak for themselves.
Sentiment score: -0.12
160. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will bring forward a cost-of-living package, considering inflation is far higher than projected on budget day, at 2.8%, and given the findings of the ESRI that the budget has resulted in income losses for the average household; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10451/26]
Sentiment score: -0.13
Inflation is 50% higher than what the Government had forecast. It claimed prices were stabilising and that was the basis for the Government pulling the cost-of-living supports in the budget. The ESRI said that the budget resulted in income losses for the average Irish household. Will the Tánaiste accept he got this badly wrong? Will he bring forward a cost-of-living package that so many families desperately require giving the prices that are being charged to them in different guises, whether shopping, insurance or many other examples?
Sentiment score: -0.20
The latest increases in food prices expose the Government's bogus justification for ripping away the cost-of-living supports. The ESRI was very clear: lower-income households felt worse off as a result of the budget. We can argue over and back all the time but the lived experience is very clear. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald stood here earlier today and outlined that 70,000 more households cannot pay their electricity bills than the same time a year ago. This is not us saying it, but the CRU. These are families. They could not fit into Croke Park and the Aviva together. That is just the additional number of people in the past year who cannot pay for their electricity. Whatever the Minister might say, suggesting the Government is doing this, that and all the rest, 70,000 more people are worse off. Those are the bare facts of it. Market researchers tell us that food inflation is 6.8% and the CSO tells us it is 4%. Five large supermarkets control 90% of the market. The Government refuses to stand up to these vested interests over prices that are out of control. The Government is not ending the rip-off or getting prices under control and all it has done is withdraw the supports. Does the Minister accept the reality of all of these figures and recognise that the State has to intervene and support those individuals in a cost-of-living package that the Government wrongly decided to withdraw at the wrong time?
Sentiment score: 0.08
I accept the Government did all those things; that is a statement of fact. However, if the Minister thinks that people are not worse off this year than they were last year, he is living in a bubble and that is the problem here. The facts are clear. As I said, energy is just one example where 303,000 people cannot pay their bills and that is only electricity. Another 170,000-plus cannot pay their gas bills. Prices are going through the roof. The Minister talked about how the Government had put up rates. It is also putting up rents with the rent-hike Bill. Electricity bills have gone up. The Government put up college fees. It has put up taxes on petrol and diesel. It put up the tax on the family home. It is planning to increase taxes on home heating oil. Insurance premiums are up. Car insurance is up. Home insurance is up. Health insurance is up. Public liability insurance is up. The Government has completely failed to be true to the promise it gave in the election campaign to reduce childcare costs. It abandoned workers when it promised them it would provide them tax cut, but instead it was developers who got the multimillion euro tax cut. The Government based all this on inflation rates that are now 50% higher than it had projected in the budget. It has got this wrong. People are struggling and people are suffering. A cost-of-living package is desperately needed. The Minister and his colleagues need to get out of the bubble they are in and recognise where ordinary people are at.
Sentiment score: -0.03