Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In response to the Deputy's second question, I have published a statement on this matter that is available on the website. My statement goes into some of the details for the affordable purchase scheme that might not have been covered in the newspapers because, naturally enough, they fixated on this new product of a lifetime - a fixed rate mortgage - which does not exist in today's market. In budget 2018, I confirmed funding for 2018 and 2019 of €25 million for a serviced site programme. I also secured an additional €15 million for the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF 2, which will build on the €200 million from LIHAF 2.

With those two measures together, as well as some of the existing large sites we have, particularly in Dublin like the O'Devaney and Poolbeg sites, we will have this affordable purchase scheme that will be the qualifying criteria to enter into homes under those three different pieces at present. We also have the affordable-to-rent scheme, which is cost rental but there are a couple of innovative things happening in other parts of the country. For example, I refer to the build-to-rent stuff into which Cork is getting involved and which also was mentioned in my press release that is available on the website.

The affordable purchase scheme will have the same income qualifying criteria as the Rebuilding Ireland home loan. They do not have to work together but they can work together if people want them to. Annual gross income cannot exceed €50,000 for a single applicant and €75,000 for a couple. We need to now decide what other qualifying criteria should apply. We can look at the Ó Cualann model. I have met officials from the organisation on at least two occasions and we have considered its qualifying criteria. People might think the criteria are too restrictive but that is a piece of work we need to do. Earlier, Deputy Ó Broin talked about feeding some ideas into that and I believe that would be more than welcome. My Department does not have a monopoly on wisdom in terms of what the best scheme might be. Everyone has different experiences from their own local authorities as to what qualifying criteria might or should apply. The scheme will use land that is owned by the State. It will also use finance as well, potentially, to buy new land if we need to do so. My Department and local authorities attended the housing summit. On that occasion we asked them to begin to identify sites that have not already been identified for affordability in order that we can start to plan. We expect the first houses to be built under this scheme to commence construction towards the end of the year.

As for the potential cost of a house, I gave an example that is included in my statement on the website. A house that cost €250,000 might actually be sold for €200,000 and then the equity stake will be taken by the local authority. If one looks at the Ó Cualann model, some of its houses were for sale for a price as low as €170,000. We can achieve the same with the affordable purchase scheme but that will depend on what cost factors went into the site in question. Not all of the Ó Cualann houses were sold for such a low price. Of course, the price will also depend on the size of the house, the number of bedrooms and everything else. It will depend on each scheme. We are talking about an affordable purchase scheme as most of us would understand it.