Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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121. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of successful applications for home loans under the Rebuilding Ireland scheme for first-time buyers; and the number that have applied for mortgages under this scheme to date. [47156/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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As with the previous local authority home loan offerings, loan applications under the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan are dealt with directly by the local authority in whose area the property proposed for purchase is situated. The Housing Agency provides a central support service which assesses loan applications that are made to the local authorities for the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan and they make recommendations to the authorities as to whether loans should be offered to applicants.

I have asked the Agency to centrally compile figures on the numbers of applications that it has received since the scheme began and also the number of applications it has assessed and recommended for approval. The most recent figures, as at the end of October, indicate that the Agency had received a total of 3,309 applications for underwriting since the scheme launched in February. Of these, 619 were deemed invalid, while the assessment of 107 others was still in progress. Of the remainder, a total of 1,317 applications had been recommended for approval.

Each local authority must have in place a credit committee and it is a matter for the committee to make the decision on applications for loans, in accordance with the regulations, having regard to the recommendations made by the Housing Agency.