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

I announced during the budget last week that we were carrying out an assessment of the current Rebuilding Ireland home loan to see how it is working for people nationally. This loan has a fixed rate of interest over its lifetime of between 2% and 2.25%, which does not exist among the banks. It is an innovative product. I am aware, however, of inconsistency in its application throughout the country. We are also considering whether it can be applied to things it was previously not permitted to apply it to, including vacant buildings in town centres. That work is taking place and it will help to provide affordable mortgages and loans for people throughout the country.

The second thing we are doing is with the serviced sites fund. In the budget, we agreed to invest more money in an affordable scheme which I implemented and commenced earlier this year to get more affordable homes from the scheme to be sold at a price that is 40% below the market price. Those are the two main affordability measures which came forward in last week's budget.

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