Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will not be surprised to hear my concerns about the help-to-buy scheme articulated again. Since it was introduced in 2016 or 2017, it has cost the Exchequer close to €700 million. The Labour Party and others in opposition are of the view that there are better ways to spend limited public resources to ensure people are housed appropriately. I have said time and again that the scheme has a deadweight effect, that is, it encourages economic activity that would happen in any case. One of the impacts of the scheme is that developers chase the market. People might get the value of €30,000 under the help-to-buy scheme. There is evidence to show that the market just chases the subsidy. No one should welcome that. Obviously people who have benefited from the scheme will be pleased with it and delighted it worked for them. That is entirely understandable from an individual's point of view.

It is not only I who says the scheme has a deadweight effect. Mazars, which was engaged by the Department to undertake a review of the scheme, has also said so. I will quote the same passage I quoted in my Second Stage remarks two weeks ago. Mazars said about the scheme that it is "poorly targeted with respect to incomes, location, house prices and other socioeconomic factors. As a result, it has socially regressive impacts, there is a considerable deadweight associated with the expenditure". They are not my words. They are the words of Mazars. I know that officials in the Minister's Department have previously placed on record the advice they provided to his predecessor that they had concerns about the deadweight effect of this scheme. The scheme was due to be wound down, but it is now being extended for another year. There are better ways to spend public money to encourage home ownership and the availability of social and affordable homes. This is not it from a policy point of view.