Sinn Féin President and TD for Dublin Central Mary Lou McDonald has said that a report in the Irish Times this morning – which highlights that none of the private homes being built on the O’Devaney Gardens site in Dublin will be subject to restrictions on the sale of homes to cuckoo funds – highlights the utter ridiculousness of the government’s position.

Teachta McDonald said:

“The O’Devaney Gardens site in my constituency has been plagued by years of poor planning, and the refusal of central government and Dublin City Council to build public homes on public land.

“The deal which eventually emerged was a bad one for the local community and the most recent revelations reveal this starkly.

“Of the 1,047 homes being built on the site, half are earmarked for use as Council houses and as affordable housing. 

“However, the other half of family homes in this development are free to be sold to cuckoo funds due to the government’s refusal to prevent the sale of apartments to institutional investors; a position that deprives many of the opportunity to own a home.

“By facilitating the ongoing hoovering-up of new apartments by these funds, the government is ignoring the thousands of ordinary working people who cannot afford the rents they charge, and who need to live in our cities for work.

“We need to see sustainable, affordable apartment-living in our urban centres, not swathes of luxury apartments, actively facilitated by government policy and their refusal to use public land for public good.”