Harris says he will not go into government with a party that scraps Help to Buy

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Simon Harris has said his party will not go into government with anyone who wants to scrap a scheme giving grants to first-time buyers.

The Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader defended the Government’s housing record by saying that the grants were helping bridge the gap between what they can afford and the cost of buying a home.

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said that house prices were increasing by 10 per cent nationally and put it to him that this was because of Government policy.

She said that average house prices in Ireland were at 345,000 euros and “a staggering” €462,000 in Dublin.

Ms Cairns said that as soon as people think they have saved enough of a deposit to buy a home, “the goalposts shift” and “people are losing hope”.

“This Government’s disastrous handling of the housing crisis will be on the ballot,” Ms Cairns told the Dáil.

“A vote for this Government will be a vote for record house prices, record rents, record homelessness and over half a million adults living in their childhood bedrooms.”

Ms Cairns said that under the Social Democrats’ plan, three-bed homes could be delivered in Dublin for less than €300,000 per year and prices would be below €260,000 in the rest of the country.

She added: “Taoiseach, do you think house price increases of more than €20,000 per year are sustainable or affordable in any way, and do you accept the Government policy is driving record house prices?”

Mr Harris defended the Government’s handling of housing and said the two schemes for first-time buyers were “making a very significant difference” to “bridge the gap”.

The Help to Buy scheme offers grants of up to 30,000 euros to buy a new-build home worth up to half a million euros.

The First Home scheme, also called the shared equity scheme, sees the Government and a bank pay up to 30 per cent of the cost of a first-time buyer’s new-build home in return for a stake in it.

“You tell a story of the housing challenge, which is real, absolutely real,” Mr Harris said during Leaders’ Questions.

“But what is also real is the fact that there are 500 first-time buyers buying their own home every single week. That’s real.

“So when we look at headline house figures, that doesn’t tell the full story because we are intervening in terms of a level of subsidy that is without precedent in this country.”

Ms Cairns responded: “Median house prices are soaring by more than 20,000 euro a year, and listening to you, you’d swear that’s evidence of a plan that’s working.”

Mr Harris replied that there was “no balance to your argument”.

He added: “If I’m to be in the next government, the Help to Buy scheme is staying, it’s absolutely staying.

“If you want to get rid of it, and if you want to tell the people who are processing their applications, probably right now with banks across the country, that you’re in favour of getting rid of it, fair play, that’s your position.

“It’s not mine. And I won’t go into government with anybody who doesn’t keep it. It needs to be kept, as does the First Home scheme. Both of them need to be kept.”