Fine Gael vow to help first time buyers

Homes must become more affordable for first time buyers, Fine Gael party leader Enda Kenny insisted today.

Mr Kenny claimed the price of homes had tripled while Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats had been in coalition government.

As he launched his party’s local election manifesto, he insisted Fine Gael were proposing a radical package of measures targeted at helping first time buyers.

“We are proposing an SSIA type scheme to help them save, the abolition of stamp duty on second hand homes bought by first time buyers, and a front-loading of mortgage interest relief to help them in the early years of mortgage repayments,” he said.

“Since Fianna Fáil and the PDs took power, the price of a home has tripled. The Government takes up to 45% of the cost of every new home. It has reaped a windfall from new homebuyers in recent years.

“It’s time to give new homebuyers a helping hand.”

Phil Hogan, TD, said the party would be running over 740 candidates and would be contesting every electoral area in the country.

“We have set out on this campaign with three objectives:

:: to maximise the Fine Gael vote,

:: to maximise the number of Fine Gael candidates elected, and

:: to get new councillors elected in key strategic areas who will challenge for a Dáil seat at the next General Election.”

Bernard Allen, TD, the party’s spokesperson on Environment, Heritage and Local Government, outlined the other main proposals in the manifesto, which included the establishment of a Consumer Rights Enforcer to tackle rip-off Ireland, while powers would be devolved to local authorities to name and shame local rip-offs.

The party has also proposed more resources for gardai, the creation of an Organised Crime Unit, and a Home Detention Curfew Scheme and electronic tagging to be used to tackle juvenile offenders in a cost-effective way.

Mr Kenny said the elections represented pay-back time for citizens against a government which had shown incompetence on every front.

He said he would sit down with Labour and the Green Party after the election with a view to working out a policy framework for an alternative government.

Mr Kenny said the Fine Gael manifesto set out his party’s ideas on how politics can really work for people: in their homes, in their communities, where they work, whether it’s in the heart of the city or of the country.

“The manifesto contains proposals to make life better, more rewarding and secure,” he said.

“It shows what can be achieved by proper planning, when politics has a vision for the future and a desire to care and work for the people and not, first and foremost, for ‘the Party’.”