Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand, but my specific question was what impact, if any, Mr. Byrne thinks this will have on house prices when one looks at both schemes combined. I will give him an example. Let us say I am a first-time buyer who is borrowing from a body in the AIB group, such as EBS, and I wish to purchase a house for €300,000. The deposit I must put together now is €9,000, which is 3%. Obviously the loan-to-value ratio is 90%, the Government will give me 5%, which takes me up to 95%, and EBS will give me 2% back. In effect, from a borrower's point of view, it is like a loan-to-value ratio of 97%. We know that is not the reality but the reality for the borrower is that he or she is only required to have 3%. Does Mr. Byrne think that is prudent? That is close to a return to the 100% rates, which could allow for much more credit to flow and could have the impact of pushing house prices up again. We have seen the house price increases in the last number of months. Does Mr. Byrne believe we are likely to see a steady rise in house prices as a result of these moves?