Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:159. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Finance the amount of revenue forgone each year by maintaining the help-to-buy scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36594/18]
View answerFriday, 7 September 2018
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Written answers
The Help to Buy incentive (HTB) was introduced in January 2017 (backdated to July 2016) and is subject to a sunset clause which is scheduled to take effect on 31 December 2019.
I am advised by Revenue that statistics on HTB are available on the Revenue Statistics webpage at:
https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/statistics/tax-expenditures/help-to-buy-stats.pdf.
These statistics, which are updated on a monthly basis (most recently at end July), provide a range of information in respect of the scheme, including the number of approved applications and the estimated total cost of approved HTB claims to date.
As of 31 July 2018, some 8,240 claims for HTB have been made, of which 7,658 are approved. The estimated total value of approved HTB claims to date is some €110.7 million, of which some €17.8 million represents retrospective claims (for the period 19 July to 31 December 2016) some €61.2 million represents claims made in respect of 2017 and some €31.7 million represents claims in respect of 2018.
As the Deputy may be aware, a cost benefit analysis of the incentive is being undertaken at the present time and I expect that it will be completed in the coming weeks.