Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the points raised by Deputy Boyd Barrett, we spend money on public information campaigns around housing and homelessness and are going to spend more on them. There are a lot of Government schemes available to help people with housing but people are not always aware of them. It will not be done through my Department but, rather, is being done through the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. There is information relating to the help-to-buy scheme, for example, to make people aware they can claim back three years of income tax to help them towards a deposit. There has been and will be advertising in around the first home scheme, which helps people to bridge the gap between the mortgage they can get and the property they want to buy, and around the local authority home loans to help people get a loan if they cannot get a mortgage from the bank. There is a public relations campaign planned around the Croí Cónaithe grants to encourage people to take up those grants to renovate old residential buildings and bring them back into use. Of course, there is the tenantin situscheme, housing assistance payment and other options, as well as cost rental. The basic point that there are a lot of different schemes and options but people may not be aware of them as they might be is accepted. We want to send information on that.

See this speech in context