Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. I also thank him for welcoming the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme. We had staff prepared to deal with queries in a call centre for two weeks but after the first day of operation of the loan scheme we had to double the number because of the level of interest among the people telephoning the helpline to ask questions about how they could apply and whether they qualified for the scheme. There is a great deal of interest in it and we expect a considerable take-up. The first tranche of funding for the scheme is €200 million. As we draw down from it, until there is €50 million left in it, the Housing Finance Agency will go back to the market to build a second bundle, a second fund, which will then be released as part of a second tranche which is likely to be at a higher fixed rate but only slightly than, say, the 2% rate for 25 years. A person who has undergone a family separation or divorce is eligible under the scheme. If someone is in receipt of State payments, they can be considered as part of his or her income contribution, but a person must have a primary source of income that is not a State payment. We are reviewing the scheme in so far as the first tranche of funding is concerned. We are logging all of the different queries to the call centre and the different issues people are raising as to what they can and cannot do. The scheme will be demand driven in terms of the number who apply and are successful. As the funding is drawn down we will see what might need to be changed for the second tranche, the second phase of the scheme, in terms of the eligibility criteria.

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