Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming before us. How many households are supported by the Department through the help-to-buy scheme, HAP, Rebuilding Ireland home loans, acquisitions and new builds? I will move on to the next question if someone is getting the answer for Mr. McCarthy.

I hear from my colleague beside me that the help-to-buy scheme has been a great success. At the time, there was much talk that it was an inflationary proposal and that it would cause prices to increase and would not be successful but I have been informed that 10,000 people have taken this up, the budget is gone and the Government is looking at increasing the budget. Could Mr. McCarthy talk me through the successes of the parameters set at that time? I refer to the €500,000 price cap, the maximum purchase price of €320,000, the five-year tax rebate period and the successes of an initiative the Department came up with. I am trying to be positive about housing.

In respect of HAP, I read a Library and Research Service, LRS, document because I was struck by some of the commentary here - I was not here earlier but I was keeping an eye on proceedings - about HAP tenancies. The figures from the LRS not the Department's figures - show that 44% of notices to quit are because of arrears where people not paying rent. Perhaps there is something I do not understand here but a person providing a HAP property is usually a private citizen, an accidental landlord or someone in the business, who has a property. According to the LRS the number of people being given notice to quit for rent arrears is 44%. One can combine the next two figures. The figure for notices to quit because the landlord wishes to sell the property is 20% while the figure for notices to quit to because of family use is 8%. I agree that a bit of messing might be going on within that 28% but I want to be sure that the correct information is going out from this committee. It is almost being put out there that people are being thrown out of HAP homes under false pretences and that the house or apartment is then put on the market. Could Mr. McCarthy elaborate on those figures in order that we can get the facts out today? Has he any answer to my first question before I move on to the next question?