(Cavan-Monaghan) asked the Minister for the Environment if he will extend the £1,000 new house grant scheme to cover owners of existing houses who build or buy new houses.

: I do not propose to extend this scheme to persons who already own houses which they had purchased or built. However, a person or his spouse who owns a house which he or she inherited or which is incapable of being made fit for habitation is not ineligible by reason of that fact for the £1,000 new house grant.

77.

asked the Minister for the Environment if he will extend the £1,000 grant to all first-time house purchasers in this country.

: I am not clear what exactly the Deputy has in mind but I assume that he is suggesting that the £1,000 new house grant scheme should be extended to include existing houses as well as new dwellings. I have no such proposal in mind, but I have already provided an attractive scheme of house improvement grants which is being availed of to an unprecedented extent for such houses.