Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Very serious questions have to be asked about the value of this scheme. Property prices are out of control in my area, and are completely out of the reach of ordinary working people. It is not just that 6,000 people are waiting for 15 or 18 years on housing lists. Others who cannot even get onto housing lists because their incomes are slightly over the threshold do not have a prayer of buying a house in my area, where average house prices are €400,000 or more.

This is no use to them but it is a benefit for people who could afford a house anyway. It is not helping those whom we need to help because it has just increased house prices. They have risen 12.3% so far this year and they are going up approximately 10% per year. This is wiping out any benefit for ordinary people but giving a nice boon to people who could probably afford to buy houses anyway. The scheme has helped drive up property prices, as the Opposition predicted it probably would. We did not do a cost-benefit analysis and there is no real evidence it is doing anything to help the housing crisis. We need to reconsider what is its point and whether this money would not be far better spent on directly providing the housing we need or in some other way helping the people at the sharp end of the housing crisis. This scheme has not helped; it has, arguably, made things worse. There may be an unintended benefit for the people who do not need it. I do not see an argument for continuing the scheme.

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