Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Today the Governor of the Central Bank appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and the Taoiseach. When asked, he told us in Sinn Féin and those of us who oppose the help-to-buy scheme that, of course, the help-to-buy scheme was pushing up prices and that a cost-benefit analysis would have been a good idea. We now know, despite the Minister's suggestions that it would not happen and despite assurances he claimed he got from the developers that it would not happen, house prices in the past three months have spiralled out of control, rising by €6,000 per month in Dublin and €4,000 per month across the State. Will the Minister now do the right thing and at a minimum suspend the help-to-buy scheme before more damage is done and house prices go out of the reach of many ordinary families?

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