Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin TD has called on the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien to reveal the details of his Departments proposed institutional investor roadshow.

The call comes after Journalist Craig Hughes revealed in the Irish Daily Mail a proposed roadshow by the Ministers for Housing and Finance to attract large institutional investors into the Irish residential market.

Teachta Ó Broin said:

“In recent years Government has bent over backwards to facilitate certain groups of institutional investors into the residential property market. 

“Sweet heart tax deals, fast track planning, reduced apartment design standards and inflationary help to buy and shared equity loan schemes have all been introduced at the behest of a small number of large institutional investors.

“The consequence of these policies has been a wave of speculative investment pushing up land and development costs which in turn have made renting and buying every more difficult for working people.

“These policies have also undermined good planning and placemaking, dragging us back to the bad old days of Celtic Tiger era developer led planning.

“The public was rightly angered when large institutional investors, availing of enormous tax breaks, were outbidding working people and punching who estates of new homes. Darragh O’Brien and Pascal Donoghue promised to take action and clip the wings of these funds.

“Now it has been revealed that both Ministers intend to go on a road show to reassure these very same investors that Ireland is open for business.

“Minister O’Brien must reveal the details of this roadshow. Who do they intend to meet? What new sweetheart deals are they promising behind closed doors to attract these funds to Ireland?

“Crucially Minister O’Brien must explain how more of this kind of investment will deliver good quality affordable homes. 

“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are addicted to private sector ‘solutions’ to meet affordable housing need. This approach has failed in the past and it will fail into the future.

“We need a fundamental shift in Government policy and a commitment to deliver 20,000 public homes to meet social and affordable need every year. Anything short of that will result in failure.”