Fine Gael has branded the Irish Government's Home Choice Loan Scheme a "dismal failure", after it was revealed only two loans have been released since its introduction last year.

The Opposition party's housing spokesperson Terence Flanagan said the scheme is a "serious let down".

Mr Flanagan dubbed the €500m fund a "bailout for developers" and an "embarrassment to the Government and the Housing Minister".

Despite costing €300,000 to administer, across four local authorities, only two applicants have secured loans in the past 12 months.

"If a cost benefit analysis were to be done on this scheme, there is no doubt that it would be wound up immediately and branded a disgraceful waste of taxpayers’ money," said Mr Flanagan.

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"The minister's decision to now include second hand homes in the scheme, as originally set down by Fine Gael, is to be welcomed as a means of injecting some life into what is all but a defunct and ineffectual scheme."

Of the 1,400 prospective purchasers who registered an interest in the scheme, only 44 applications were made.

Twenty-seven of these were declined, four were approved and only two were drawn down.

Three applications have been withdrawn, while a decision is pending on a further ten where further information has been sought.

Mr Flanagan said any initiatives to help first-time buyers into the property market are to be welcomed.

However, he said this scheme was "only ever a sop to builders' representatives and the Construction Industry Federation who lobbied the Housing Minister heavily for its introduction".

A review of the scheme is expected to be agreed within the next three months.

Mr Flanagan said if the level of demand has not increased dramatically, the scheme should then be "wound up without delay".

(PR/BMcC)