Cutbacks deny struggling house-buyers’

FINE GAEL accused the Government yesterday of secretly cutting the Affordable Housing Scheme and putting thousands more people on the waiting list.

The scheme provides a maximum subsidy of €38,000 to low and middle-income earners struggling to get on the property market by allowing them to buy a house at close to the cost price.

But now local authorities seeking the maximum subsidy for their Affordable Housing Schemes have been told by Department of Environment officials that they cannot secure it, said Fine Gael environment spokesman Bernard Allen.