Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Senator Flynn on raising the matter to which she referred. I am delighted that she had a platform to raise it. She is an equal Member of this House. I also congratulate my colleague from Mayo, Senator Chambers, on her recent marriage to Councillor Jarleth Munnelly. I wish them well and hope they have a long, happy life together.

I would like to raise an issue regarding the €50,000 grant and the €20,000 top-up grant. There is some ambiguity about the draw-down of the €70,000. There is confusion between the banks and local authorities. A local authority has to have a secondary charge on a property. In some cases, a bank will have a problem with this. The secondary charge is in order that people who avail of the €70,000 grant and do up their home do not sell it for a period of ten years. This is causing problems for people who are in a position to buy one of the properties in question and do it up as their principal primary residence. It is causing problems with the draw-down of their loans or mortgages. I ask the Deputy Leader to bring this matter to the attention of the Minister and for the Minister and the banks or the banking associations' representatives to come together to iron this out so that there is no hold-up with the draw-down of the €70,000. As we know, a bridging loan will probably be taken out before the €70,000 is obtained. This will cause hardship and eat up some of the loan for those hard-pressed people who are trying to get homes for themselves.