Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move recommendation No. 4:

In page 24, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following:

“14. The Minister shall, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on how he will monitor on an ongoing basis the effectiveness and the value for money of the Help to Buy scheme.”

This recommendation concerns the help to buy scheme. We believe that this scheme is having unintended consequences in that it is driving up house prices and benefitting builders. This scheme only applies to first-time buyers of new houses, meaning that first-time buyers cannot buy a second-hand house in the area in which they grew up. The scheme is costing approximately €40 million per year and the Minister has extended its use. The housing crisis is a supply-side problem, yet this scheme does nothing to deal with supply-side pressures. I ask the Minister of State to outline why he believes it appropriate to continue with the help to buy scheme given that there is no evidence to suggest that it is meeting the intended rationale as an effort to help individuals gather the necessary deposit to meet Central Bank requirements that would then also lead to increased supply. Has the Department carried out a cost benefit analysis yet?

The recommendation calls on the Minister to provide a report within one month of the passing of this Act on how he will monitor on an ongoing basis the effectiveness and value for money of this scheme. It is Sinn Féin's view that the help to buy scheme should not continue and we have opposed it from day 1. This scheme should never have been introduced. It was done on the insistence of the Minister but with the support of his friends here to my left, Fianna Fáil, as a result of its policy of abstaining. The scheme has put money into the pockets of the developers and has led in no small way to the increase we have seen in house prices year on year.