Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am afraid of running out of time so I will put two questions together. From an individual borrower's perspective, it seems the insurance company would make decisions in respect of the borrower and not the bank. That is in respect of the extent to which people are regarded as a risk.

My second question relates to the help-to-buy scheme in the UK. There has been a very mixed reaction to that scheme, as the witnesses probably know. On the positive side, it has been credited with bringing more units onto the market but, on the negative side, it has been charged with pushing prices up and squeezing out other buyers. Do the witnesses have any comments to make on that scheme? While we are all very aware of the difficulties facing first-time buyers, one of the concerns is that in a market in which supply is very tight, products like these will simply inject more demand into the market which cannot be satisfied.