Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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93. To ask the Minister for Finance the cost of the help-to-buy initiative; the number of households that have availed of it; the average and the median value of the grant given to each household; and the number of recipients in each county. [30947/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Help to Buy incentive aims to both assist those first-time buyers struggling to save for the deposit required to purchase a home, as well as incentivising additional construction activity for the provision of extra housing supply. At Budget time it was estimated that the Help to Buy incentive would cost €40 million per annum but €50 million in 2017 due to the backdating of the relief in respect of properties which became eligible for the scheme since 19 July 2016.

Revenue publishes regular updates on the HTB scheme on its website. The most recent update to 29 June 2017 in respect of applications, both approved and pending, and claims made can be found at

As of Thursday 29 June 2017 the value of HTB refunds verified and paid was €28.1 million, including €12.1 million in respect of retrospective claims (home purchases and self-builds in the period 19 July to 31 December 2016).

The number of applications received for the HTB scheme was 7,787, of which 5,038 have been approved. Some 2,519 claims have been made, of which 1,930 have been verified and paid. The average value of claims is €14,560. The median value of claims is €14,625.

The number of recipients by county is set out in Table 7 of Revenue’s published statistics.