Professor Philip Lane:

We are not out to burden individuals. If a person receives a fiscal grant, the risk has essentially been absorbed by the State. It slightly cuts across Deputy McGrath's issue about showing a track record of regular payments. That element would have to be separately tracked. That is more about the loan to income ratio. In terms of the loan to value ratio, if the Government decided to offer a fiscal subsidy to a group of people, from the banking sector's point of view, the banks would be made safer by that lower reliance on debt funding, but that in turn would come at a fiscal cost to the Government. Therefore, I think that is for the political system to debate.