Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The take-up is very slow. Much of that is to do with the building industry being on the ground anyway and people not going into it.

It was largely directed at disused Georgian houses, especially in Limerick and parts of Dublin. Given the many planning constraints on the development of such houses, they are probably more expensive to renovate. We confined the tax break to owner-occupiers rather than developers. It is early days. Many of these schemes start slowly and are actively taken up as the economy lifts.