Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I am grateful to Deputy Gilmore and our deputy leader, Deputy McManus, for introducing this motion. First time buyers were hit by a double whammy, with the removal of the first time buyer's grant. The reason given for this in interviews at the time was the Government's belief that developers or builders were factoring the grant into the price of the house and therefore it was of little benefit to people buying houses. It was amazing to note that despite its removal the price of houses did not come down by €4,500 and the Government did nothing to make that happen.

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