Tánaiste Simon Harris has said the issue of “splitting” a Help to Buy transaction raises important questions over the oversight of the Government scheme.
He was speaking after estate agent Sherry FitzGerald launched an internal investigation after a home buyer was offered a “split” sale for a new-build property, in order for it to qualify for the Help to Buy scheme. The case was first reported in The Irish Times on Tuesday.
Mr Harris reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to the scheme for the lifetime of the Coalition, but said important questions had been raised by the issue of “split” sales.
“When issues like that come to the fore it does raise important questions in relation to the oversight of the scheme,” he said, adding he had total confidence in the Revenue Commissioners' operation of the scheme but that it was ultimately taxpayers’ money being used.
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“It’s important that the integrity of the scheme is protected at all costs.”
He said the Government would await any guidance or advice from the Revenue Commissioners or the Department of Finance in relation to the scheme.
The Help to Buy (HTB) scheme is administered by Revenue and provides a refund on income tax of up to €30,000 to first-time buyers on new-build properties up to a value of €500,000.
The Social Democrats’ spokesman on housing, Rory Hearne, said it was “alarming to see evidence of such blatant breaches of the scheme”.
“Questions need to be answered now about how widespread this issue is and if this case is just the tip of the iceberg,” the Dublin North-West TD said.
The story “shows that estate agents are playing a role in pushing for and facilitating higher house prices, which developers are also lobbying for”.
“The Government has done nothing to challenge the various market actors pushing up house prices, and has actually added to and facilitated house price inflation through the Help to Buy schemes. We need to see proper regulation and transparency in the house purchase market to stop the price-gouging going on now,” Mr Hearne said.
Mr Harris also referred to the potential impact of trade tensions between the United States and the European Union as the clock ticks down on a 90-day tariff pause to charges announced by the White House earlier this year.
The Tánaiste said this week would be an “extremely intense” period in trying to secure a framework agreement between Brussels and Washington. He said that at the very least, the aim was to provide a sense of certainty where there was a “vacuum” at the moment.
He said the current situation was “holding back people in terms of jobs decisions and investment decisions. We need clarity and certainty as to what the trade environment works like”.
He said Europe and Ireland wanted to see “zero-for-zero” tariffs as widely as possible, and that the Government was working hard on the issue of pharmaceutical exports to the United States.
