The bulk purchase of homes in Belcamp Manor in Dublin is the result of Government policy, the Sinn Féin Leader has told the Dáil.
Mary Lou McDonald said the buying of the homes by wealthy vulture funds is a kick in the teeth to workers saving to buy a family home.
85% of this particular housing development on the north side of Dublin was snapped up from under the noses of workers by an investment fund, she said.
Some 46 of the 54 properties in Belcamp Manor in Balgriffin were sold to a fund last month for more than €21.5 million.
The Sinn Féin Leader urged the Government to clip the wings of vulture funds and to support a Sinn Féin motion to raise the tax on a single buyer purchasing ten or more homes.
This stamp duty rate currently stands at 10% for bulk buying investors and Sinn Féin is seeking to have it increased to 17%.
Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said the stamp duty changes previously introduced by Government in 2021 has reduced this type of home buying.
However, she said the Belcamp Manor planning permission predated those tax changes.
The minister told the Dáil that just 1% of home sales have been purchased by these funds since 2021.
Separately, new figures revealed the number of homes bulk-bought by investors had significantly increased over the past three years despite the additional 10% tax.
The Government will announce revised "ambitious" house building targets once key research from the Economic and Social Research Institute is published next month, according to Ms Humphreys.
Speaking in the Dáil, she said this year's Housing For All house building target is 33,450, but she accepted that there is a gap between that figure and what's required.
She was replying to Labour Leader Ivana Bacik who accused the Government of presiding over an "abject failure" on housing, adding it was a "shameful record" that 13,514 people are homeless.
Ms Bacik said the answer was to "increase the housing stock" but, she claimed, the Government does not have the "necessary ambition" to adopt the "credible targets" as put forward recently by the construction industry stakeholders.
Ms Humphreys said around 33,000 new homes were built last year - the highest number since the crash.
She described this as "substantial progress", and asserted that Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien was "working day and night" to increase the ambition.
She said revised targets would be forthcoming once the ESRI completed its work to ensure "more houses built in the right places".
Ms Bacik said no "amount of spin" will cover up the fact that the government has no credible housing building targets - stating that her party announced last year there should 50,000 homes built.
Referendum debate
Opposition parties have raised concerns in the Dáil about the Government's proposed wording of the upcoming referendums on family and care, which will be held on 8 March.
The 39th Amendment proposes to extend the definition of "the family", in Article 41 of the Constitution, so that it would apply not only to families based on marriage but also families based on other durable relationships.
The absence of a definition of "durable relationships" was a concern for both Ms Bacik and Sinn Fein TD Sorcha Clarke.
Questions were also raised about the 40th Amendment which proposes to underscore the value placed by society on the importance of the role of all family members who provide care within the family, and it places an obligation on the State to strive to support that care.
Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Mick Barry said the Government should be proposing "bolder changes" which would be in line with the Citizens Assembly recommendations.
Minister for Children and Equality Roderic O'Gorman is participating in the Dáil debate and is expected to respond to Opposition TD points over the next three hours.
He told the Dáil that the Government will be "vigorously advocating" a yes vote in the upcoming referendums.
Replying to the Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith, Mr O'Gorman said that our Constitution needed to "reflect our values".
The minister argued that currently the Constitution does not do that because it "places women in a particular category when it comes to care" and excludes many others.
Mr O'Gorman said extending the definition of "the family" in Article 41 of the Constitution to include the phrase "durable relationships", would not mean that polygamous relationships would be recognised by the State.
He said that polygamous relationships would not be afforded protection under the Government's proposed amendment because such a relationship was not a "natural and primary fundamental unit group of society" - as defined elsewhere in Article 41.
However Independent TD Micheal McNamara called on the minister to publish the legal advice he had received on that point because, he contended, he failed "to see how it can't" afford such protection to polygamous relationships as they could be argued to be "durable".
Defending the use of the phrase "durable relationships" in the Government's proposed amendment to the Constitution, Minister O'Gorman said that the definition referred to the "strength" rather than the "duration" of the relationship.
He argued that there were clear "guard rails" within Article 41 on what was meant by family and he contended that the phrase "durable relationships" would provide further guidance on what is protected.
The Minister said the Government's amendment would include protection being given to "horizontal relationships", such as co-habiting couples, and "vertical relationships" between a parent and their child.
Clarifying that he would not accept a Labour amendment proposed by leader Ivana Bacik, Minister O'Gorman said he wanted a "broader more inclusive definition of the family" and wanted to do this in "an upfront way".
Dáil suspended
The Dáil was suspended after Opposition politicians criticised the Government over its stance on Israel's attacks on Gaza.
People Before Profit TDs Richard Boyd Barrett, Paul Murphy and Mr Barry loudly demanded that a debate be held this week.
When they ignored repeated requests from the Ceann Comhairle to sit down, Seán O'Fhearghaíl suspended the house for five minutes.
Ms Bacik, Sinn Féin's Matt Carthy and Independent TD Thomas Pringle also raised the issue with Ms Humphreys, who responded that TDs can use the time allocated to them to debate matters.
The angry exchanges continued after the Dáil resumed following a five minute suspension.
The Ceann Comhairle said everyone in the house was sickened by the attacks on Gaza and the October attacks on Israel.
"What gallery are you playing to?" he asked the PBP TDs, asking what is achieved by their shouting.
"We are doing everything we can as a Government. I can assure you. Yes - we - are," Ms Humphreys said.
Ms Bacik said that she is seeking support for a cross-party motion declaring Irish support for the South African case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
She appealed to Ms Humphreys to consider supporting the motion.
"This is not the time for intervention by other states," the minister said of the case at the ICJ, but added that she would raise the matter with Tánaiste Micheál Martin.
"We will not be found wanting" if the Government judges that an intervention is "warranted", she then told Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns.
Additional reporting by Paul Cunningham
