Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

I would like to discuss the first home scheme price ceiling, particularly for County Tipperary. As a young Member, I will highlight yet again that housing is the number one issue affecting my generation. In Tipperary, we are really struggling with privately built housing, particularly affordable housing. The first home scheme is in place to help those of us who could get a mortgage but where the purchase price of the house is higher than our mortgage to bridge the gap. However, the price ceiling in Tipperary is becoming a major issue. According to officials in the local authority, developers or those who would build houses are deciding to go to other local authorities rather than Tipperary because of the price ceiling we face.

Close to 3,700 homes have been bought under the first home scheme since it was launched three years ago this month. Thousands of others have been approved under this scheme and it is growing in popularity. It is working. Charlie Weston had a positive piece on the first home scheme or the shared equity scheme recently in the Irish Independent. This quote is important because he stated:

Buyers in Dublin, Kildare, Cork, Meath and Wicklow represent the biggest proportion of users of the scheme but the price ceiling in Dublin and Wicklow is €500,000; in Kildare, it is €475,000; and in Cork and Meath, it is €400,000. The average price of homes being purchased under this scheme is €386,000.

In early July, the price ceiling under the scheme increased across 16 local authorities but, unfortunately, Tipperary was not one of them. I will give the example of neighbouring counties of which there are a lot. In Galway and Limerick, the price ceiling is €425,000; in Kilkenny, which is part of the constituency I represent, it is €400,000; and in Clare, Offaly, Laois and Waterford, it is €375,000. However, in Tipperary, it is €350,000. To get private developments built in north Tipperary in particular, the price ceiling needs to be adjusted upwards so that we have parity with neighbouring counties. Otherwise builders will go elsewhere where they have more certainty in the market.

I do not accept the Department's calculations. I will give the example of the area I represent in north Tipperary. In Clare on one side of the River Shannon, the ceiling is €375,000 while across the bridge in Portumna in County Galway, it is €425,000. In Kilkenny on the other side of the constituency, it is €400,000 while in Laois and Offaly, it is €375,000. It does not make sense why Tipperary is so different from any of those counties. The clear message coming back from developers to me and the county council is that the scheme is workable, they like it and they can build and provide the houses we need but they are opting to go to the counties next door because of that obvious barrier we face. I have raised social housing, which is being delivered in Tipperary, many times in this House. We need to see more of it along with log cabins and modular homes but affordable housing is key and this scheme helps in this regard. It helps bridge the gap for those of us who could get a mortgage but who cannot reach that final price. I ask the Government to look at raising the price ceiling from €350,000 to possibly €375,000 for Tipperary so that the scheme can be workable.

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