Fianna Fáil has accused the Green Party of putting additional hurdles in front of first-time home buyers in its general election manifesto.
Fianna Fáil TD for Fingal Darragh O’Brien, who is also Minister for Housing, said he had concerns about a proposal on the future of the Government’s Help to Buy scheme
Mr O’Brien said he welcomed constructive input on housing policy but rounded on the Greens’ proposal, which would introduce price caps for properties eligible for the tax-refund measure depending on which county the home is in.
“What I don’t welcome is any reduction in the support for first-time buyers,” he said, adding it seemed to him the party is “putting additional conditions and hurdles for first-time buyers by bringing in price variations across the country”.
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“I don’t see how it would help a first-time buyer in other parts of the country by reducing access to the grants,” he said. Mr O’Brien would not directly address whether the Green Party proposal violated the Fianna Fáil ‘red line’ that the Help to Buy scheme must be retained in programme for government negotiations.
“I wouldn’t support any changes to Help to Buy that are going to reduce the access that people would have to buy their own home.”
Mr O’Brien said that the he expected 41,000 homes would be built next year, in line with targets agreed by the outgoing Government last week, and claimed there are 26,000 social homes in the development pipeline now.
He said that he wanted to see house prices moderate through an expansion of homebuilding and affordable housing schemes.
However, he would not speculate on when that might happen, despite a prediction by his party leader, Micheál Martin, that it may be 2026 before there was a deceleration in the market.
Mr O’Brien was promoting Fianna Fáil manifesto policies on vacancy and dereliction, including increasing vacant and derelict restoration grants by €10,000, and a €250 million grant for living above the shop, to be paid out to a maximum level of €100,000. The party is promising to deliver this alongside reforms to fire regulations that it says will make these premises easier to convert and live in.
It is also promising a €150 million vacant property purchase fund and to implement a local authority-led vacant property mortgage, to pass new compulsory purchase order legislation and to implement leases for buy-and-renew and repair-and-lease schemes across local authorities.
Mr O’Brien said Fianna Fáil, if returned to government, will increase the vacant property tax year on year to drive people to take action to use or sell vacant properties.
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