Departmental Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 February 2023

Thursday, 16 February 2023

Ceisteanna (207)

Cathal Crowe

Ceist:

207. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Finance the number of first-time buyer help-to-buy scheme applicants and approved recipients since its inception by county; and the total number of approved recipients in 2020, 2021 and 2022, by county, in tabular form. [8041/23]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Finance

The Help to Buy (HTB) incentive is a scheme to assist first-time purchasers (FTP) with the deposit they need to buy or build a new house or apartment. The incentive provides a refund of Income Tax and Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) paid in Ireland over the previous four years, subject to limits outlined in the legislation.

I am advised by Revenue that applications for Help to Buy may be made on a provisional basis as first-time buyers seek to clarify their entitlements in advance of commencing the purchase of a property. An application will only progress to the “claim” stage if and when the applicant decides to purchase a property that is eligible for the scheme. It is only at claim stage that the property address details become available, and therefore a county breakdown of applications, encompassing those that do not progress to claim stage, is not available.

Revenue have advised that the table below provides a county breakdown of the number of approved claims for the years 2017 – 2022, based on the date of the commencement of the claim stage:

-	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Carlow	35	36	60	60	105	61
Cavan	34	40	60	69	87	69
Clare	60	74	126	104	166	94
Cork	509	563	804	804	1,104	958
Donegal	43	49	88	114	148	175
Dublin	1,974	1,574	1,679	1,145	1,110	1,057
Galway	201	218	290	331	417	326
Kerry	45	41	81	98	104	115
Kildare	514	473	675	772	990	1,029
Kilkenny	36	48	85	142	122	118
Laois	63	88	85	142	222	144
Leitrim	12	16	<10*	19	29	18
Limerick	162	151	210	213	256	176
Longford	19	18	34	22	29	25
Louth	130	185	218	189	342	312
Mayo	64	78	144	131	160	166
Meath	599	585	845	746	867	633
Monaghan	30	43	67	66	100	81
Offaly	55	34	59	78	135	153
Roscommon	32	31	63	61	80	62
Sligo	26	39	54	37	74	62
Tipperary	83	84	112	96	133	112
Waterford	127	113	145	161	192	162
Westmeath	60	70	80	94	95	101
Wexford	64	98	191	168	296	285
Wicklow	258	211	305	224	310	249
Total	5235	4960	6560*	6086	7673	6743

* Where there are fewer than ten cases in a county, the exact number is not provided due to Revenue's obligation to protect taxpayer confidentiality. The number of Leitrim-based claims is therefore excluded from the 2019 total.