Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the extension of the help-to-buy scheme. The figures show that 16,412 people applied for the help-to-buy scheme from January to November and even more people have applied in the last few months. If the Senator were successful in removing the section, can he imagine how many first-time buyers would be let down by him and Sinn Féin? The UK has brought in a similar scheme, which is a tax-free loan of up to 40% for first-time buyers. In Ireland we are only giving them up to 10%. It is not ideal that we have to intervene in the market and provide such schemes but there needs to be some incentive for builders in the short term to increase supply. This scheme has worked. It has helped young couples who have been paying rent as they do not have to put money aside for a deposit. The help-to-buy scheme is one way of overcoming that requirement. It is very welcome and we acted before the UK when it came to the scheme. We were in there first. Generally, we follow its legislation but in this case it has brought in similar legislation to ours. One of the better elements in the UK legislation is that if builders want to benefit from the help-to-buy scheme or engage with it, they have to comply with extra standards of house building and extra requirements. That might be something for the Department to look at, in conjunction with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It is a very helpful scheme. There could be improvements but I do not agree with Senator Gavan's opposition to the section.