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

In response to the issue regarding 40% of people already having saved their mortgage deposit or a contribution to their mortgage, in any policy measure that one puts in place there are always going to be some who would benefit from the scheme, even if they did not need the benefit. That is the case in every policy that we evaluate. There are always going to be a percentage of people in any economic policy that would be able, for example, to complete a transaction or do something even if a support policy was not in place for them. Even according to Deputy Doherty's figures, 60% of people benefit from the scheme, and for the 40% to whom the Deputy refers, perhaps it gives them the opportunity to have a lower level of debt or to use the money to buy furniture and kit out their home. For me, that is something that needs to be considered in the evaluation of the scheme.

I will go back to the point I made to Deputy Doherty earlier, the average couple on this scheme has an average income of €77,000. That is a real world example of who is being helped by the scheme. One will always find couples and individuals who earn more than that, who are buying homes for more than the average value, but that is the average level of income for people who are participating in this scheme, which shows the help that it gives. I do not agree with the idea that the scheme of itself is a cause for inflation within the housing market. It could be the case that it is a partial contributor to the increase in the cost of houses in some areas, but there are many deeper factors at play than the presence of the help-to-buy scheme.

The total number of purchases on the scheme, as well as the percentage of the purchases as a total of first-time purchases of the new homes being built, rebut the claim that the scheme is a significant cause of housing inflation and a beneficiary to large developers.

On the Deputy's question regarding comments made by the ESRI and the Parliamentary Budget Office, I am aware of those comments. We will evaluate the impact of this scheme on the housing market next year. The ESRI would take a very different view from that of Deputy Doherty on retention of the local property tax or decisions on amending carbon pricing. As a politician who aspires to be the Minister for Finance and to see his party in government, the Deputy forms a view on measures which he believes to be beneficial and fair. Sometimes institutions evaluating policies, even when one in government, take a different view on the impact of schemes in particular policy areas. I go back to the two reports I mentioned that did not find evidence of this scheme having the impact on the housing market that the Deputy suggested. I will review the impact of the scheme on the housing market next year given the amount of change taking place in the housing market at the moment and the uncertainty concerning housing output.

To respond to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I am not arguing that this is the only thing the Government is doing to try to support housing output. The Deputy acknowledged that. This scheme is simply one element of that. The Government may not be doing all the other things the Deputy called on us to do at the scale he wants. However, we are increasing capital expenditure, paying for and co-funding infrastructure and moving ahead with major public transport projects to allow the release of more land on which to build more homes. The Deputy wants us to do more of that and he will argue, no doubt, that we are not doing enough but this is just one policy measure alongside an array of other policy measures that are being put in place by the Government.

To respond to Deputies Canney and Naughten, it is increasingly the case that local authorities are purchasing vacant properties. I hope the incentive to purchase such properties will be reflected in the selling price the local authorities are offering purchasers and that there will be no need for them to be included in the help-to-buy scheme. In my constituency, which is highly urban and different from the settings the Deputies referred to, Dublin City Council is buying derelict properties at a very low price. If it is looking to sell them on again, it has an opportunity to offer the properties at a very affordable price to potential purchasers on the basis of the low purchase price as opposed to including them in the help-to-buy scheme.

On Deputy Mairéad Farrell's point about affordability, there is a need for measures that drive affordability in the housing market. Where the Deputy and I differ is that I see this as being a measure that tries to get the balance right between, on the one hand, enabling the supply of houses at a time when we need more homes to be built and, on the other, making a contribution to people on the scheme - the total number of participants last year was 6,600 - that the majority of them need to build up a deposit and help make a house purchase affordable. From my point of view, that is one of the main reasons this scheme is in place.