Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We have not gone into the level of detail to which the Deputy is alluding. We have not done so on the basis that the initiative is a modest one for giving back tax to try to help people who have been saving. The safeguard or control measure we envisage is that one can apply under the scheme only once. Once one has availed of the measure — it is open to any first-time purchaser — one may not avail of it again. Another control measure is that the scheme is time limited.

I take the Deputy's point but I do not really envisage the circumstances he described arising in reality, for the reasons I outlined. That there is only one access point, that one must have been saving and that one must be a first-time buyer are the safeguards, and I am satisfied they are sufficiently robust.