KBC Bank Ireland CEO claims Govt's help-to-buy scheme has made things worse

Calls for newly-appointed Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to scrap the help-to-buy scheme are quickly becoming the consensus, as one leading banking figure becomes the latest voice to state it is doing more harm than good.

Wim Verbraeken, the chief executive of KBC Bank Ireland, said at an investor meeting in Dublin yesterday that it served to "actually reinforce demand and it translated, we believe, very quickly, into higher house prices, rather than in an increased ability for first-time buyers to buy their homes."