But it's clear that a measure brought in to stimulate house-building in the late 1970s has outlived its usefulness and has become money for buying furniture, upgrading a kitchen, or carpeting rooms, writes Miriam O'Donoghoe
I don't know much about Dublin North Fianna Fáil TD Jim Glennon other than that he is a newcomer to the Dáil and was apparently a useful rugby player in his day. Perhaps it's his experience of the rough and tumble of the rugby pitch that bravely prompted him to reveal to Marian Finucane on RTÉ Radio this week that he was not among the Fianna Fáil backbenchers jumping up and down over the withdrawal of the first-time house-buyers' grant.
In fact, shock horror, he told her he agreed with the measure, leaving Marian and the nation aghast. After all, the airwaves were full of nothing else but ranting objectors to the abolition of the grant in the past week.
It was refreshing to hear Jim Glennon come out among his parliamentary party colleagues to support the decision and show a bit of political back-bone while the usual backbench suspects lined up against.
The withdrawal of the first-time house-buyers' grant in the Estimates has led to the outbreak of an illness that even Micheál Martin, with all his money in the Department of Health, can't cure. It is called "backbencheritis" and Fianna Fáil have it bigtime.
The chronic sufferers of "backbencheritis" looked distinctly pale as they headed home to their constituencies to hear what the punters had to say after the Estimates were published.
By Sunday, a full-blown epidemic was under way, with TDs getting it in the neck from potential house-buyers. The disease even extended to the PDs, with their Galway West TD, Noel Grealish, joining the ranks of the discontented.
It should be pointed out that this disease is not fatal. The backbenchers who display all those worrying symptoms and shout from the rooftops with pain tend to make a miraculous recovery at the very last minute when they are reminded that they could end up in isolation for the rest of their days.
The sudden cure for Fianna Fáil backbenchers came just in time for the vote on the Government motion on the Estimates in Leinster House on Wednesday night. After a heated three-hour Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting, in which 33 TDs stood up and lambasted Charlie McCreevy and Bertie Ahern over the first-time grant, they all dutifully trooped into the Dáil chamber to vote for the motion.
This isn't the first time that backbenchers have kicked up since the May election. There is a core group who have whinged and whined since the cutbacks got under way in the summer.
Part of the problem, you see, is that they have had it too good for too long, because Charlie McCreevy's Budgets have been one big giveaway after another.
The good days are over for now and the backbenchers will have to realise that a lot of tough medicine is on the way as Mr McCreevy seeks to get the country's finances back on track.
Of course, hundreds of first-time buyers are angry because they won't be getting the benefit of the €3,800 grant. And you cant' blame them.
One of the TDs kicking up about the measure told me privately this week that he had one couple complain to him that because they wouldn't be getting the grant, they can't have their planned sun holiday next spring.
Taking away the first-time house-buyers' grant is only the tip of the iceberg. There are lots of other painful decisions that Mr McCreevy can, and must, take.
These have been good governments for the middle classes. For instance, the biggest beneficiaries of the Special Savings Investment Accounts, which are costing the country €500 million a year, are those who have plenty of spare cash to pump into these wonderful little earners. Small savers on modest means are very much the poor relation in all of this.
And what about the child benefit payments that thousands of well-off families are using to boost their SSIAs? For many well-off and comfortable people, child benefit has also become the fund for holidays and house renovations and other luxury expenditures.
I am sure this is not what Mr McCreevy intended when he increased the allowance so dramatically over the last two years.
I have said it before and will say it again - it is now time to tax or means-test child benefit to make sure that those who really need it - families living on the fringes - get more, and those with plenty of money get less.
Already, those with "backbencheritis" are warning Mr McCreevy not to renege on his plan to put another €400 million into child benefit in the Budget.
But if he is brave enough he will ignore them. And he will also go ahead in the Budget and apply the same logic that led to the withdrawal of the first-time house-buyers' grant to lots of other tax breaks, allowances and benefits.
If he does, for example, do something to make child benefit more equitable, the Minister can brace himself for another serious outbreak of backbencheritis. But my guess is they will recover and he can call their bluff again. Or will some of the afflicted surprise us and not only talk the talk, but walk the walk into the opposition voting lobby next time? Somehow, I doubt it.