Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will be aware that one of the difficulties in Dublin is that the loans being offered are, on average, €200,000. My local authority of Dublin City Council offers €180,000. This is far short of the market rate.

6 o’clock

One of the things we are being told by people who receive offers that are simply too low in the context of purchasing properties is that the information on the Rebuilding Ireland home loan website is confusing and does not outline clearly what the key criteria are. In fact, the calculator on the website can often give people an inflated sense of the loans they will be able to access. When they receive an offer, it is far below what the calculator indicated or they do not get an offer at all. The broad range of criteria applied to the home loan facility at the underwriting stage must be explained more clearly so that people do not go into it with unrealistic expectations of what they might be able to get. The issue is particularly acute in the larger urban areas.

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