Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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109. To ask the Minister for Finance the extent to which he remains satisfied that first-time house buyers or the purchasers of a family home are not priced out of the market in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45076/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, overall responsibility for housing policy rests in the first instance with the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. The Government is aware of the significant issues facing the housing market and it is committed to restoring the housing market to a sustainable equilibrium by seeking to increase the supply of housing to meet growing demand.

In order to deliver on an ambitious target of building 25,000 new homes by 2020, Rebuilding Ireland – the Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, adopts a whole of government response with 84 actionable measures across five key pillars. The Government has been engaged in a review of Rebuilding Ireland, in order to assess the impact of the policies contained within the Action Plan, and to consider additional actions to address issues with supply in the housing market. The measures set out in the Action Plan and its review should help to stimulate supply by streamlining the planning system, removing infrastructure blockages and supporting the delivery of affordable housing for both first time buyers and purchasers of family homes.

The Help-to-Buy initiative, which was retained in Budget 2018, should help alleviate some of the specific challenges faced by first time buyers in accessing the housing market. The initiative has been designed to provide immediate and targeted support for first time buyers in meeting their deposit requirements and encouraging the construction of new housing units whilst the structural measures announced in the Action Plan are being rolled out. My Department commissioned Indecon, an economic consultancy, to complete an independent impact assessment of the Help-to-Buy initiative in March. The report was published with all the Budget 2018 documents and found that, to date, there has been no identifiable impact of the Help-to-Buy initiative on house prices. It further found that the initiative has enhanced affordability for first time buyers and that it has reduced the number of years required for purchasers to save a deposit for new homes.

Budget 2018 contained a number of other initiatives that will assist in lowering the cost of building homes and increasing affordability, including for first time buyers. Such measures include the establishment of Home Building Finance Ireland, which has €750 million to lend to home builders and an additional €75 million allocation for the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund.