Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will deal with Deputy Paul Murphy's points first. The reason I am not commissioning a further study into a decision I have made is that I have had two studies on it, the latest of which was undertaken 12 months ago for last year's budget. I published it and all the information relating to it.

On lobbying, I had one meeting with the CIF at which there was no reference to the help-to-buy scheme. I met its representatives and they did not bring it up.

There is no information available to me on the income levels of people who access the scheme. I have other forms of information but a key dataset that I use is the value of homes that are purchased under this scheme. While I made the point that 56% of the homes are valued at between €226,000 and €375,000, 13% of properties purchased with help from this scheme have a value of less than €225,000. It is fair to assume that those properties, particularly if they are in the larger cities, are first homes or perhaps family homes that have been purchased by people who need support because of their income level.

Deputy Doherty made a point about the loan-to-value ratio and asked me to confirm that 41% of approved claims were made by households which have a loan-to-value ratio of less than 85%. Those are the figures and that is correct. However, just because there is a loan-to-value ratio for those people of less than 85%, that does not also mean that a degree of support will not be a help to them. Many other purchases are going ahead that have a loan-to-value ratio higher than 85% for which the scheme is very helpful.