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LAST UPDATE | 24 Apr 2024
FOUR IN 10 people getting support to buy a house via the First Home Scheme are single people, the Housing Minister has said.
Speaking at the latest update on the Government’s Housing for All plan, Darragh O’Brien said many single people face a “real challenge” when trying to buy their own home as they are relying on just one salary.
“It’s very interesting, in the First Home Scheme we’re seeing about four in 10 of the buyers using that actually being single people,” O’Brien stated.
Since its launch in July 2022, over 4,000 individuals and couples have availed of the First Home Scheme.
There were over 800 approvals under the scheme in the first three months of this year, up around 38% compared to the same period in 2023. Some 262 homes were purchased via the scheme in the first quarter of 2024.
Under the scheme, the Government and participating banks pay up to 30% of the cost of a new home in return for a stake in the home. If the buyer wants, they can buy back the stake but they don’t have to.
O’Brien today said the Government has committed a further €40 million to the scheme.
When asked about the difficulties faced by many people when trying to buy their own home, O’Brien said those who are renting or “are still living with their folks” have options such as the First Home Scheme and the Help to Buy grant.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said these two schemes are the “most obvious direct interventions by Government to help people with affordability”.
He added that the Government is also making efforts to increase supply in order to have “a positive effect on demand and affordability”.
Earlier this month at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis, Harris predicted that Ireland can build 250,000 new homes between 2025 and 2030.
Speaking today, he said he expects this figure to be in revised targets issued by the Government later this year.
He said the 250,000 figure is “roughly where I expect the landing zone to be”.
Harris said there is “absolutely a need to lift the scale of our ambition” and not doing so “would be very underwhelming for people living in box rooms” in their parents’ houses.
When asked how much an affordable home should cost, in his opinion, he said there “isn’t one single figure”.
The Taoiseach said, unlike Mary Lou McDonald, he would not give a specific figure – referring to a previous statement by the Sinn Féin leader that the average house price in Dublin should fall to €300,000.
I’m not going to mislead the Irish people.
Harris told reporters: “There isn’t one single figure in relation to affordability because affordability varies depending on a person’s circumstances, depending on the composition of the family.
“And it also has to factor in a range of other issues in terms of Government intervention.”
Responding to the update delivered today, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin said the Government is “taking people for fools”.
“There is no update on the number of social, affordable rental or affordable purchase homes delivered in the first quarter of this year.
“There is no update on the number of vacant property refurb grants drawn down, or first home loans actually drawn down in the first quarter of the year.
There is also no update on the number of new private homes to purchase coming to the market in the first three months of the year.
“This is important as too much of the modest increase in supply is being snapped up by the expensive built-to-rent sector, further deepening the affordable housing crisis.
“Nor is there any information on what Government intends to do this year to address rising homelessness, rising rents or rising house prices,” Ó Broin said.
Building started on almost 12,000 new homes in the first three months of this year This is the highest Q1 figure since the Government began recording these numbers in 2014 and is up 63% on the same period last year, O’Brien said earlier.
However, the State missed its social housing targets in 2023. The Government built just over 8,000 social housing units last year, missing the goal of around 9,100.
“Go back two years, that was 5,400 – that’s a massive jump up. Yes, it didn’t meet the 9,100, but it was a very significant scaling up,” O’Brien said during the press conference.
There’s about 26,000 social homes in the pipeline, under construction or about to go under construction.
It was also confirmed today that the Cabinet has approved an extension of the waiver of the local authority section 48 development contributions to the end of this year and the refunding of Uisce Éireann water and waste water connection charges until the beginning of October.
O’Brien said the waiver, which was brought in to try to offset the increased cost of building materials, and the water refund scheme had “undoubtedly been a principal factor in influencing the speedier activation of planning permissions by developers since they were introduced last year”.
He said extending these measures “will ensure that many more homes will come into the mix this year and quicker than otherwise may have happened”.
Contains reporting from Press Association
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Is it possible that not only do they not get two seats in Dublin central but that Mary Lou might, just might be in trouble? Can’t keep her foot out of her mouth lately. Outraged at 9 million for phones. And yet the government of N. Ireland are doing the exact same thing……
@Alan OConnor: nice photograph. Didn’t realise she had moved house.
@Alan OConnor: I think Mary lou is safe, but this will be a new strategy for SF as they need to run more candidates if they have any hope of getting into Government. The LE saw the strategy fail to an extent as where Janice Boylan was elected on the 12th count. with a few more had she run as a single candidate, she would have done a lot better.
Personally, I can’t see SF making huge gains with multiple candidates as their core vote is 15-18% and splitting that will make it difficult. But they have to do it.
@Alan OConnor: their strategy will be the same as last time, fill all the ballot papers across the country with candidates completely lacking in experience, as long as they promise not to sing ‘A Nation Once Again’, if elected
@Alan: Ah jaysus yeah, oul Mary lou from the flats!
@Mr Inbetween: did Sinn feign block the use of pouches in Northern Ireland?
@Mr Inbetween: £250,000 on phone pouches for 10 schools! Not a peep out of Sinn Fein… odd that.
@Alan OConnor: Harris should definitely know, and maybe you should read a little before rehashing his misleading sound bites. The DUP hold the education ministry in north assembly and because of the disfunctionality of that statelet, each minister has almost total autonomy of his/her department. Therefore SF have little to no say on this issue.
@Alan OConnor: her own foot soldiers disagree with the new woke stands
Everyone including/especially the poor have realised that everything depends on a successful functioning economy and don’t want to be an experimental Venezuela of Europe.
@thomas molloy: still, they would create a great country for paedophiles.
I’m glad Janice and Mary Lou have patched things up. Was it 2 or 3 years ago, Janice said that the party had humiliated her, and she promised to reveal all in a cryptic Facebook post? She then quit, but the party denied she had.
‘ I can not stay where I am not supported, valued or even really respected.’
@honey badger: specifically:My decision to resign is based on numerous promises that things would change, numerous times I have been humiliated and numerous times the party has failed to support me therefore made my role as a councillor harder than it ever needed to be.’
@Alan: All’s well that ends well, eh readers?
I wonder when Sinn Fein will cop on that Mary Lou is their main problem . Since she became party leader there have been a succession of own goals . Also , I get the impression that she is not allowing talented individuals to come forward as they might be a threat to her position . Considering the number of TD’s that they have the dearth of able people is extraordinary . Simply cannot see them hanging on to the number of seats that they have much less increasing that number .
@Des Hanrahan: I know nothing about Irish politics. Who will take her place ?
@offside again: We’ll have to wait till Belfast decides. It’s the way things are done.
@honey badger: “ its how things are done” only in your mind where SF live rent free!!!
@North Phone Bowe: Nothing was done about these guys:
Liam Adams.
Seamus Marley.
Martin Morris.
Michael McMonagle.
Sinn Fein has questions to answer. They’ve spent years ducking them. Maybe you’d like to explain…
@honey badger: maybe consider moving to this century?
@offside again: I have no idea.
@honey badger: Liam Adam’s served a sentence, Micheal mc Monagle is awaiting sentencing and Martin Morris was charged and attended trial to defend himself, a court of law which his accuser ran away from. So again your assertion that nothing happened to then is plainly false.
@North Phone Bowe: No thanks to Sinn Fein, who knew but did nothing. Who knew but moved the men to different jurisdictions. You already know this, slippery shinner.
@North Phone Bowe: they are all ball roots. Protected from within and by the very very top members of the Sinn Fein cult. Many of whom are female and constantly bang on about ‘human rights violations’. Make me sick. Disgusting perverts.
Mary Lou has become a liabilty to SF. She needs to be replaced by Pearse Doherty asap or they will lose a lot of theier seats next election. A very, very poor opposition party.
@Gerry Lamont: Keep her there, Doherty is only good for shouting.
@Gerry Lamont: while Pearse is very good with figures in front of him and is a capable finance spokesman…he has not been very good in interviews about other policies…he is the obvious candidate to replace Mary lou but I’m not sure if he’d do any better
If you’re working class and struggling or middle class and barely surviving, then you should definitely vote for FF and FG. The parties who’ve brought you the most expensive, overdue hospital in the world. The parties who give their mates lucrative contracts to build bike sheds and security huts. The parties who’ve bent over backwards not to enact the Illegal Settlements Bill. The parties who’ve allowed Irish airspace to be used to bring US WMDs to the Netanyahu regime. The parties who do nothing to ease the pain of children with scoliosis. The parties who’ve continuously failed you regarding housing and healthcare. You should definitely vote for those guys, they sound great!!!
@Anthony Curran: Nicely done, +1
Nonce party.
@Fintan Pox: Jimmy Saville could run for them if he was alive
@Buster Lawless: why does he have to be alive?
@Buster Lawless: lol
Mary Muslim Lou and her merry band of traitors are finished thank god.
@Trump23: The more you say it the dafter you sound.
Amazing Journal no place to query Sinn Fein attitude or response to sexual crimes by party members
With any luck Janice will get in and be the only sf elected. That would be a handy way out for Belfast!!
Get rid of usc and ill vote for you lot
Isn’t one of their measures to abolish USC for those earning under 45,000? https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/what-would-the-opposition-parties-have-given-you-in-budget-2025-if-they-were-in-government/a459096158.html
@9QRixo8H: get rid for ALL I say
SF will be no different from FF or FG if in government.
@AnthonyK: apart from the fact that we’d have a third world economy in a matter of weeks, with FDI disappearing like water down a plughole.
But at least their mentor, Putin, would be happy with his progress in wrecking the EU.
@AnthonyK: they have never been in Government. So you are speculating (another word for talking out of your Nat-king-cole)
@John Mulligan: putin? Ffs like. Sinn fein were (are) filthy animals long before putin entered the scene.
Sinn Fein about to commit Hari Kari by running too many candidates and diluting their vote so as not reaching quotas – all because they were told that they should have run many more last time.. bit dopey.
I’d be surprised if they swing two seats. With two failed local elections behind them and no new talent coming through, Janice is the logical choice. However, I’m sure SF aren’t in an even near situation of popularity they were in prior to the last generals. I wish them all the best but if they get the numbers wrong again, it brings SF’s decisionmaking, as a party into question.
As a person, I like Mary Lou. I like they way she stands up for people. But defending communities and leading a country are two very different things. Gerry & Martin were leaders but she’s not in that class (but neither are any of the other party leaders in fairness). My piont is, leaders come to the top. The current crop are skimmed milk. Only the cream rises to the top.
One thing is for sure, NEVER write off Sinn Féin.
“Should have ran”..tut tut
the Sinn Féin president said she is hoping for “third time lucky” in this election
Hope is a four letter word Mary Loo
She’d be better served trying to hang on to her own sear given their current performance.
have your say