Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as an gceist seo a ardú. I thank the Senator for raising this question and for keeping it firmly on the agenda during his tenure in the Seanad. They are important schemes. The first home scheme, launched in July 2022, is a shared equity scheme, designed to help bridge the gap for eligible first-time buyers, other eligible home-buyers and self-builders between their deposit, mortgage, and the price of their new home, within established price ceilings. An overall investment of €480 million was committed to the scheme, with an equal contribution from the Department and the participating banks. In April, the first homes scheme published their quarter 1 2024 delivery figures. These show that over 4,000 approvals have been issued since the scheme launched, which is very impressive. The average price of a home bought was €379,469 with the average equity support provided being €66,642, equating to 18% of the price of the home. In June, the fourth scheduled six-monthly review of the price ceilings that apply to qualifying homes was undertaken with agreement to revise price ceilings in 14 local authority areas.The 13 local authority areas at the lowest price ceiling increased their ceilings from €325,000 to €350,000, with the Limerick city and county ceiling increasing from €400,000 to €425,000. The revised price ceilings came into effect on 1 July this year.

The vacant property refurbishment grant was launched in July 2022 under the Croí Cónaithe towns fund to support the refurbishment of vacant and derelict properties and bring them back into use as homes. The grant initially provided up to €30,000 for the refurbishment of vacant properties, with up to a maximum of €50,000 for derelict properties. The maximum grant amounts payable were increased to €50,000 and €70,000, respectively, in May 2023 to take account of the increase in construction inflation to which the Senator referred. A review of the grant, which was committed to on its launch, including of grant levels, has been completed and is with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, for consideration. Uptake of the grant has been positive, with more than 8,670 applications received, over 5,500 approved and almost 500 grants paid out as work is completed. In light of the success of the grant, the Government agreed to increase the target for homes to be delivered from 2,000 to 4,000 by 2025.

The help-to-buy scheme is a demand-led tax measure rather than voted expenditure. As such, it is a matter for the Minister for Finance.

Under the vacant property refurbishment grant, the national built heritage service in my Department has added a further provision of €5,000 for conservation advice to be given to the owners of eligible properties. As we can anticipate, these older buildings perform differently from modern buildings and restoring them can be complex. The conservation advice is very useful to the owners of such properties to point them in the right direction and take appropriate measures not to do any harm to a building. That can sometimes happen if the wrong interventions are made.

As the Senator said, all of these measures are feeding into the ambition the Government set out when it was formed. In line with our town centre first policy, they seek to unlock the potential of the amazing buildings in our towns, villages and cities. Bringing those properties back into use will bring vibrancy back to our town centres. As I outlined, the uptake of the schemes has been huge. The Government is keeping an open mind in this regard. The schemes are under constant review in the context of the changing landscape under which they operate.