Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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214. To ask the Minister for Finance the definition of "first-time buyer" used by the Central Bank and the Revenue Commissioners, respectively. [24791/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Central Bank has advised that, for the purposes of the Central Bank mortgage lending rules, a first-time buyer is defined (in SI 47 of 2015) as "a borrower to whom no housing loan has ever before been advanced". The statutory instrument also provides that "where the borrower under a housing loan is more than one person and a housing loan has previously been advanced to any one of those persons, none of those persons is a first-time buyer".

In respect of the Revenue Commissioners, I am advised that a “First time buyer” is defined in the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 for the purposes of both the Help to Buy scheme and the DIRT Refund scheme, as follows:

1. Section 477C (Help to Buy) provides for the definition of first-time buyer for the purposes of the Help to Buy scheme, as follows:

“first-time purchaser” means an individual who, at the time of a claim [for Help to Buy] has not, either individually or jointly with any other person, previously purchased or previously built, directly or indirectly, on his or her own behalf a dwelling."

2. Section 266A (Repayments of DIRT to first-time purchasers) provides a definition of first-time buyer for the purposes of any repayment of DIRT arising, as follows:

“first-time purchaser” means a person, being an individual who, at the time of a relevant purchase or on the relevant completion date, as the case may be, has not, either individually or jointly with any other person or persons, previously purchased or previously built directly or indirectly on his or her own behalf any other dwelling.".

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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215. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason the Central Bank deems a returning emigrant who never owned a residential property here but did abroad for a period as a non-first-time buyer; his views on whether this classification is unfair; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24792/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Central Bank has advised that for the purposes of the Central Bank mortgage lending rules, a first time buyer is defined as a borrower to whom no housing loan has ever before been advanced. It also provides that where the borrower under a housing loan is more than one person and one or more of those persons has previously been advanced a housing loan, none of those persons is a first-time buyer.

The Central Bank also advised that it introduced proportionate limits specifically to allow a certain flexibility by lenders when assessing individual cases, such as may be the case in instances referred to in the question. The proportionate limits mean that lenders are able to make decisions based on an individual borrower’s circumstances up to a specific limit. In the case of second and subsequent buyers, lenders can in any year lend up to 20 per cent of the value of PDH mortgages at LTV levels in excess of the 80 per cent LTV cap which generally applies to such borrowers. Also, lenders will still be required to assess an individual borrower’s affordability and lend prudently on a case by case basis, in line with the requirements of the Consumer Protection Code and other regulations.