Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I certainly appreciate that the Finance Bill has taken up all of the Minister’s time. However, this scheme was introduced in 2016 and became operational in 2017. The most recent formal review was many years ago. The tax strategy group did a chapter on it with various options. They pointed out that the scheme is four times more expensive than envisaged. The comments from the ESRI, which have been repeated many times, are that the help-to-buy scheme is adding to demand pressures. Social Justice Ireland states that the help-to-buy scheme has disproportionately benefited purchasers who buy higher-value properties. Indeed, anecdotally, in and around Galway, we are now helping professional people. The scheme is there to help everybody and I have no problem with that but, generally, professional people have a much higher salary than others. For example, consultants are now benefiting from this scheme, and rightly so because it is there. However, the scheme is certainly not helping those that it was intended to help to get on the housing ladder. The urgency of the review can not be overemphasised.

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