Housing Minister makes fresh bid to boost Help to Buy funding in budget

Minister for Housing James Browne is continuing to lobby to lift the tax refund for first-time buyers under the Help to Buy scheme to €50,000, despite the Minister for Finance insisting it is his job “to say no” to such proposals.Browne believes that a €20,000 hike to the tax refund is still possible in Budget 2027 despite both Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris shooting the idea down.It comes in advance of a major Government campaign to advertise schemes such as Help to Buy to aspiring homeowners who may not be aware of the tax-back scheme.Under Help to Buy, a first-time buyer who is buying a new home worth less than €500,000 can get a tax refund of up to €30,000 or 10 per cent of the purchase price of their house, or the total income tax and Dirt they have paid over the last four years, whichever is lowest. READ MOREIt is understood that Browne wants to raise the tax refund from €30,000 to €50,000. While the Department of Housing has downplayed any prospect of a Coalition row over the issue, it is understood Browne will continue to lobby for the tax increase in the last two weeks before Budget 2027 is agreed and announced. One source said Harris’s own party had campaigned before the last general election on a promise to increase the tax relief under Help to Buy to €40,000.Minister for Housing James Browne. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times Since Friday, both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have rejected the proposal.“In relation to Help to Buy, I’m not proposing bringing forward any new measures in relation to housing taxation in the budget. My job is to follow the Programme for Government, my job also is sometimes to say no,” Harris said.The Taoiseach, while speaking in Manchester on Friday, said he had spoken to Browne about the proposal but “that has not been on the table in the last couple of weeks, so we haven’t been pushing for that”. Browne will tell colleagues at a Cabinet meeting on Monday that his department will launch a major public awareness campaign in the coming weeks for schemes such as Help to Buy. It comes after a study by Glenveagh Homes published last month said that about 40 per cent of people were not aware of the scheme. There will also be a significant push to promote the cost-rental scheme for renters and Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant under the public awareness campaign. [ Housing reports paint two different pictures of market, but reach similar conclusionOpens in new window ]Meanwhile, Harris will on Monday warn that Ireland’s ageing population will create an “immense” burden on taxpayers in the next quarter of a century. The Tánaiste will deliver the first of what may become an annual speech on the state of the economy by the Minister for Finance at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).“By 2050, just 24 years away, Ireland will look a lot like Italy or Japan does today. In such a society, growth will be lower, costs will be higher and the burden on taxpayers – our children – will be immense,” Harris will say. “There is no way of avoiding that fate and that is why it is so important that we continue to run surpluses and invest in our sovereign wealth fund.”Ireland’s future economy will be “more diversified”, according to Harris.“Everyone knows about the level of concentration in corporation tax receipts, but that is just a reflection of the concentration in our industrial base. We are very reliant on a few key sectors, a few key firms and a few key products. Let’s not pretend that’s not the case. What we now need to do is make the right choices for the next steps.”