Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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124. To ask the Minister for Finance the extent to which first-time buyers' incentives are assisting persons and in particular in counties Sligo and Leitrim; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16927/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I assume that the Deputy's enquiry relates to the Help to Buy scheme (HTB).

Applying to the Revenue Commissioners for the HTB incentive is a two-stage process. Individuals must first submit an application for the incentive to receive an indication of the level of tax relief that may be available to them, and subsequently submit a claim for a tax refund where they have entered into a contract to purchase or have commenced to self build. The refund is generally payable to the contractor at the deposit stage in the case of a home purchase, or in the case of a self-build, is paid to the applicant when they have drawn down the first tranche of their mortgage.

Up to 31 March 2017 there were 4,698 applications made to Revenue in respect of the HTB incentive. Of these, 1,006 have proceeded to the claims stage of the process.

The breakdown of claims by county is as follows:  

I am advised by Revenue that for reasons of taxpayer confidentiality, where there are ten or fewer claims in a particular county, exact figures cannot be provided. Both counties Sligo and Leitrim fall into this category.

The deputy may wish to know that Revenue now regularly publishes statistics in relation to the HTB incentive (including a county-by-county breakdown of claims) on its website at:

www.revenue.ie/en/about/statistics/tax-expenditures.htm.