Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)

The Government will oppose this Bill, but I welcome the opportunity to speak about the role of Government measures to support access to affordable housing and assist those aspiring to buy their own home. We continue to deliver the first affordable homes in a generation and are supporting increasing supply in this area. Quarter 1 of 2025 has seen the continued strong performance of the various affordable housing pathways, with affordable delivery increasing by over 49% over levels achieved in the same quarter of 2024.

This Bill proposes to put additional financial reporting requirements in place for contractors who receive funds from the first home scheme by amending section 41 of the Affordable Housing Act 2021. The description of the Bill refers to property developers who are in receipt of State subsidies, while the proposed amendment to the legislation refers specifically to the first home scheme. It remains unclear whether the intention is to apply the reporting requirements to developers who sell new homes to home buyers availing of the first home scheme, or to the wider array of State supports, but I think Deputy Hearne clarified that it would start with the first home scheme and the intention is to broaden it to the wider affordable housing scope.

Either way, the Government strongly opposes the Bill for several reasons. First, the Bill seems to misunderstand the nature of the first home scheme. The first home scheme is a commercial and independent designated activity company. Section 41 provides the statutory basis for the Minister for housing to contribute funds to this special purpose vehicle for the purpose of operating and administering the equity scheme. The scheme aims to bridge the gap for first-time buyers and other eligible households between their deposit and mortgage and the price of a new home. It does so by providing an equity share payment directly to the eligible household to support their purchase of a home in exchange for a percentage ownership in the property. This equity share can then be purchased by the household based on their preferences for buying back the equity share over time. The first home scheme holds a stake in the home until the home buyer buys it back or the home is sold.

The value of the payment is up to 30% of the value of the new home or 20% if used in conjunction with help to buy. There are maximum price ceilings of between €350,000 and €500,000, depending on the dwelling type and location, with the aim of targeting the support at the most suitable dwellings. The first home scheme is also available for self-builds and for tenant-in-situ properties where the tenant has received a notice of termination because the landlord is putting the property on the market. The equity payment is paid directly to the home buyer to pool with their deposit, their mortgage, and the use of the help to buy scheme, if applicable, to pay the seller of the new home. The scheme does not make a direct payment to the developer but rather supports the home buyer in the purchase of the house on the private market.

Seeking to track developers who sell new homes to home buyers availing of the first home scheme, and mandating these developers to publish annual financial information in order to be allowed to sell homes to users of the scheme, makes no sense. In addition, this could disincentivise developers from selling homes to users of the first home scheme to avoid triggering onerous additional reporting requirements. The Government is in the business of promoting the use of the first home scheme to support the delivery of affordable housing - not putting in place new barriers to its use.

Second, the proposed Bill would be extremely complex to legislate for and implement. The Bill refers to a "contractor" which is not currently a specific legal entity. A contractor could be a sole trader, a small private company or a large public company. While these specific types of entities are defined in legislation for purposes such as tax, financial reporting and so on, there is no such definition for a contractor. Creating such a legal definition would be extremely challenging and difficult to implement.

Third, there is already adequate provision under company law regarding the financial information that companies are required to disclose on an annual basis. While some "contractors" may not be legally classified as companies which are obliged to provide financial information, there is a good reason these onerous financial reporting requirements have not been applied to other smaller enterprises in our economy. So far, I have referred to the application of the Bill to the first home scheme, to which the proposed amendment would apply in practice.

Government also opposes the principle of mandating new financial reporting requirements for developers who are drawing on an array of Government supports aiming to stimulate the supply of housing. We remain fully committed to the successful implementation of the suite of housing measures and reforms set out in the programme for Government and under Housing for All. The forthcoming national housing plan will reaffirm and strengthen this commitment.

Many developers producing housing at scale are likely companies registered under the Companies Act 2014. Such companies are already obliged to submit annual financial data to the Companies Registration Office, and Deputy Hearne alluded to that. These financial statements are publicly available through the Companies Registration Office open data platform free of charge. As with the first home scheme, creating barriers to the private sector’s engagement with Government schemes which aim to increase the supply of affordable homes or increase the viability of apartments for sale would be detrimental to the supply of new housing and to the interests of those seeking to purchase or rent it.

Homeownership is very clearly positioned in Housing for All as being at the heart of Government’s housing policy. That plan included a comprehensive suite of measures which are both legislatively underpinned and fully funded, to better support first-time buyers to purchase homes on the private market more affordably, two of which are the help to buy and the first home scheme. Use of the first home scheme has been growing steadily after the initial bedding in period. Under this scheme, more than 7,600 buyers have been approved, and nearly 3,700 homes have been bought to the end of quarter 2 of 2025. In May of this year, Government approved an additional €30 million State commitment to the scheme, extending it to June 2027, bringing the total State commitment to the scheme to €370 million, matched 50:50 by the participating banks. The total commitment across all participants is, as such, €740 million. There is a programme for Government commitment to work with the participating banks to extend the scheme to 2030. The scheme will be key in supporting the ambitious delivery target of an average of 15,000 starter home supports per year over the next five years.

The help to buy scheme has seen more than 58,800 claims approved since the scheme began in 2017. The scheme refunds income tax and deposit interest retention tax paid by first-time new house purchasers with up to €30,000 payable to support the accumulation of a deposit and the purchase of a new home. Local authorities are delivering affordable homes with funding of €560 million from the affordable housing fund to support the delivery of more than 6,200 affordable purchase and cost rental homes by 22 local authorities. The affordable purchase scheme is based on an equity share model, similar to the first home scheme. The local authority held stake can be brought back at any point over a 40 year period after purchase or redeemed on sale if the property is sold.

The impact of these supports on first-time buyers can be observed in the data. More than 122,800 first-time buyer mortgages have been drawn down in the five years to end quarter 2 of 2025. Some 6,488 first-time buyer mortgages were drawn down in quarter 2 of 2025, up 3% year-on-year, while rolling 12-month drawdowns for first-time buyers increased almost 6% year-on-year to almost 26,900.

Our programme for Government commitment to deliver an average of 15,000 starter homes per year will be reflected in the upcoming national housing plan and will further drive the availability of affordable housing options for first-time buyers. The croí cónaithe cities scheme supports the building of apartments for sale to owner-occupiers. It aims to bridge the current viability gap between the cost of building apartments and the market sale price in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. It allows for a subsidy of up to €120,000 per apartment or €144,000 in certain cases in regional cities where lower market prices results in a larger viability gap. These subsidies render the development viable and the subsidy is then passed on to the purchaser in the form of fair market price for the apartment. With apartments already being delivered with the support of the scheme, and more apartments approved for support in construction, the Minister, Deputy Browne, issued a new call for applications in June of this year. The Government has committed to continuing the scheme to support the construction of apartments for owner-occupiers.

We have made a lot of progress in the past five years with the delivery of some 140,000 new homes since July 2020. Government is acutely aware of the need to build on this progress and act urgently to create the conditions to more than double this output to 300,000 over the next five years. We have been clear that, while the State will continue to direct unprecedented levels of public resources at housing, it is also essential that the right environment is created for greater levels of private investment to flow to support the step change in housing supply which this country needs. The environment for the private sector to invest in and efficiently deliver new housing is complex. It requires certainty, stability and predictability. It involves the supply of zoned serviced land, an efficient planning system, the timely delivery of infrastructure, the availability of adequate development funding at a reasonable price, the cost of construction and the adoption of the most efficient technologies and practices, and the additional charges levied by the State on the activity. Improving the environment for the development of new houses has benefits for both the delivery of public and private housing in terms of costs, efficiency and output. For the private sector to deliver, it needs to have a viable product where dwellings can be delivered at a cost in line with what people can afford with the expectation of a reasonable profit for the developer. Over time, an improved environment and healthy competition should result in improved affordability in the private market for renters and owner-occupiers.

There is substantial activity already under way aiming to improve the environment for housing delivery. The revised national housing plan set out the increase in zoned land necessary to support the increased housing targets. The ongoing implementation of the Planning and Development Act 2024 will ensure delays currently constraining supply will be reduced and more timely decisions on planning applications. The housing activation office will bring a critical focus to the provision of enabling infrastructure while the national development plan has provided significant additional funding for infrastructure investment to unlock more housing supply. The recently announced changes to apartment guidelines will help to reduce the delivery cost for apartments, which are a strategically critical component for the private rental sector.

The rental sector reforms announced earlier this year are envisaged to stimulate investment as well as extending protections for renters. The upcoming national housing plan will present the renewed environment for housing delivery which the Government is putting in place, including additional supports to complement the ones I have mentioned today. This will be the environment in which all stakeholders will then work towards delivering the step change in housing supply which the country needs over the next period. I therefore urge colleagues from across the House to oppose this Bill. It makes no sense in the context of promoting the use of the first home scheme by first-time buyers and other eligible households to support them in the purchase of a home. Creating barriers to the private sector’s engagement with such schemes would be detrimental to the supply of new housing and to the interests of those seeking to purchase or rent it.

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