{"id":16474,"date":"2026-03-09T17:54:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=16474"},"modified":"2026-03-09T17:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:57:10","slug":"taxpayer-on-the-hook-as-housing-minister-leads-irish-delegation-at-international-property-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/taxpayer-on-the-hook-as-housing-minister-leads-irish-delegation-at-international-property-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxpayer on the hook as Housing Minister leads Irish delegation at international property conference in France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is highly inappropriate that the Minister for Housing is attending an international property conference in France this week aimed at enticing more vulture funds to Ireland, according to Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Hearne, who is the party\u2019s housing spokesperson, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is extremely disappointing that the Minister did not heed my call on him to cancel his attendance at this year\u2019s March\u00e9 International des Professionels de l&#8217;Immoblier in Cannes. Instead, he has the brass neck to issue a press release highlighting the fact that he is leading the Irish delegation at the conference \u2013 courtesy of the Irish taxpayer and a number of large developers who are sponsoring the Ireland Pavilion at this exclusive event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEssentially, the minister will be using the conference to send out the message to international investor funds and institutional landlords that Ireland offers an opportunity to set rents at whatever level they want \u2013 and then reset them to market rates every six years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is highly inappropriate for Minister Browne to be going cap in hand to international investor funds at time when we are witnessing eviction levels In Ireland not seen since the Famine.\u00a0Yet again, it shows that this government\u2019s only solution to the housing crisis is to continue bringing in vulture funds to buy up Irish homes and turn them into financial assets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of rubbing shoulders with rich investor fund managers at a glitzy event in Cannes, Minister Browne should be focusing on delivering more social and affordable homes in Ireland. His attendance at this conference is further evidence that when it comes to pursuing flawed housing policy, this government is again doubling down on failure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>March 9, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is highly inappropriate that the Minister for Housing is attending an international property conference in France this week aimed at enticing more vulture funds to Ireland, according to Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne. Deputy Hearne, who is the party\u2019s housing spokesperson, said: \u201cIt is extremely disappointing that the Minister did not heed my call [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7,737,510,821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release","category-rents","category-rory-hearne","category-vulture-funds"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Taxpayer on the hook as Housing Minister leads Irish delegation at international property conference in France - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taxpayer-on-the-hook-as-housing-minister-leads-irish-delegation-at-international-property-conference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taxpayer on the hook as Housing Minister leads Irish delegation at international property conference in France - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is highly inappropriate that the Minister for Housing is attending an international property conference in France this week aimed at enticing more vulture funds to Ireland, according to Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne. 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