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

I thank the Deputy for his question. This was something we considered when we were designing the loan scheme, namely, whether bundles or targets would be given to each local authority, but we thought it might interfere with some of the decisions the credit policy committees would have to make on loan applications in trying to meet their targets or draw down what might be seen as a limited amount in the particular local authority area. It is not confined solely to Dublin, Cork and Galway or certain parts of the country. It is up to every local authority to administer the scheme based on the number of applications it receives. We are not going to wait for the fund to run out before we build up a second fund to allow a continuation of the scheme with whatever changes we might deem to be necessary based on how the first phase of the scheme had operated. The Deputy is right in pointing out that the fund of €200 million for the scheme will I hope result in the achievement of 1,000 mortgages for families and individuals. When the level of the fund is at approximately €50 million, the Housing Finance Agency will build a second fund. The total for local authority mortgages amounts to just under €1 billion. The total mortgage market in Ireland is about €99 billion. The sum of €200 million is small and limited in the scheme of things, but there is scope to build it, depending on the level of demand. The scheme will be demand driven. We are depending on the local authorities to administer it efficiently. The Housing Agency and the Housing Finance Agency will act as a backstop to help in reviewing difficult cases, engage in due diligence and everything else. There is a timeline built in for each of the credit committees to make its decisions, but there will be a turnaround time of four to six weeks for applicants.

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