Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I think that is a good idea. If the agency were able to make recommendations to Government Departments, I would suggest that it should recommend the scrapping of the programme, which was dreamt up at a time when the average house value at the entry price was approximately €250,000. Given that those properties now cost somewhere between €80,000 and €120,000, the rationale that underpinned the incremental purchase scheme no longer exists. It is a bad deal for the Exchequer and a bad programme for the purchasing tenant in the long term. It is a bad deal all around. The rug has been pulled from under the rationale that led to the establishment of the incremental purchase scheme by a previous Administration. I would like to pick up on what Deputies Stanley and Ellis said earlier.