There is a commitment in the programme for Government to develop a new help-to-buy scheme to assist first-time house purchasers. Does the Taoiseach agree with me that this scheme is not working particularly well? In my experience, it takes up to six months to get a decision on whether one can get a loan to purchase a house. There are more refusals than acceptances. Does the Government recognise the problems in the scheme? Does it intend to refine it to ensure it will achieve the purpose for which it was designed, namely to enable first-time house purchasers to get on the housing ladder?

When is the Government going to meet its commitment to overhaul the tenant purchase scheme for local authority tenants?

I thank the Deputy for both those questions.

The Deputy is referring to the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme. More applications to the Housing Agency for this scheme have been successful than unsuccessful. More than 1,000 loans have gone through the Housing Agency. The delay is happening at the credit committees at local government level.

During the budget process, I reviewed the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme. There are proposed reforms and I am in conversation with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform as to how we progress those reforms to ensure the loan can work for more people and more quickly.

The review of the tenant purchase scheme is ongoing and will be completed shortly. I should be in a position to make an announcement on it in January.