Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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207. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of first-time buyer help-to-buy scheme applicants and approved recipients since its inception by county; and the total number of approved recipients in 2020, 2021 and 2022, by county, in tabular form. [8041/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Help to Buy (HTB) incentive is a scheme to assist first-time purchasers (FTP) with the deposit they need to buy or build a new house or apartment. The incentive provides a refund of Income Tax and Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) paid in Ireland over the previous four years, subject to limits outlined in the legislation.

I am advised by Revenue that applications for Help to Buy may be made on a provisional basis as first-time buyers seek to clarify their entitlements in advance of commencing the purchase of a property. An application will only progress to the “claim” stage if and when the applicant decides to purchase a property that is eligible for the scheme. It is only at claim stage that the property address details become available, and therefore a county breakdown of applications, encompassing those that do not progress to claim stage, is not available.

Revenue have advised that the table below provides a county breakdown of the number of approved claims for the years 2017 – 2022, based on the date of the commencement of the claim stage:

* Where there are fewer than ten cases in a county, the exact number is not provided due to Revenue's obligation to protect taxpayer confidentiality. The number of Leitrim-based claims is therefore excluded from the 2019 total.