Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I appreciate the Minister's answer and the measures in the housing plan that will be there to support first-time buyers, in particular the 15,000 starter homes per annum, which will include affordable purchase, first home scheme properties, help to buy and the vacant refurbishment grant. They are all very welcome. The point I really want to drive home - I know the Minister is aware of this and is looking at it - is that the qualifying criteria at the moment mean that many first-time buyers are falling outside of them. Under the help-to-buy scheme, which I appreciate is a Department of Finance scheme, the price ceiling for a property is €500,000. In many areas of the country now, first-time buyers find themselves not able to secure a new property for €500,000, so the help-to-buy scheme is no longer available to them. Equally, the price ceiling in relation to the first home scheme is actually less. In Cork, for example, in Cork city it is €475,000 and in Cork county it is €450,000. Again, many first-time buyers find themselves outside this. It needs to be looked at, and I would appreciate if the Minister could look at this as a matter of urgency.

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