No bail out!
Shame on the Fianna Failers for bailing out their construction benefactors at the expense of ordinary working people. We should not let ourselves be deluded and exploited for the benefit of a few again (as we were when the market was going up).

This IS tinkering with the market price of houses. Do they think we're stupid?
Do they not realise that over-inflated house prices and excessive debt are the number one threats to our competitiveness and economic future?
Question marks hang over Dell's commitment to Ireland, and the 6% of GNP they generate. Have FF no other ideas but to get back into bed with the builders? What's most repulsive is that low to middle income earners are being targeted to pay for the bailout.
Three words: DROP THE PRICE.

I'm absolutely disgusted with this government! How can they say that this is not tinkering with the market? Are these people mad? They want to use tax payers money to sustain house prices to help out their builder mates. The scrap of faith I had in FF is gone; they make me sick.

All this means is that property developers STILL get overinflated prices for their houses. It is another deception. Simple answer: lower the price of houses to their real value. We have had enough abuse. No more schemes to protect the rich.

Hear, hear! Allow the market do its job and prices will fall of their own accord. No country in history ever got prosperous buying and selling houses to each other. House prices must go down for Ireland to reagain its lost competitiveness and prosper.

Apart from this plan being a betrayal of the Irish taxpayer, it's a betrayal of the principles of Fianna Fail - although it seems that the current mob seem to have forgotten what those are.
It looks like it might be time for tar and feathers, either at Leinster House or at the next Fianna Fail Ard Fheis.

This in my opinion is certainly tinkering with the property market.
I am involved in the property market and only know too well the inflated prices that these developers have been commanding over the last 10 years for properties that were "thrown up".
Where do the government propose getting the finance?
The only way in which the property market can be kick-started is by the developers themselves; they need to reduce their prices. A lot of blame also lies at the respective financial institutions' front door - 100% mortgages. The banks couldn't get the borrower to sign on the dotted line fast enough, now people who can afford to buy, are being refused by the very same banks because of their over-lending to the wealthy developer. These very banks are carrying the developer on their backs at the moment while the first-time buyer is being penalised.
For those developers who cannot meet their repayments, their respective banks/financial institutions should be pushing them to reduce their prices and in turn, repayments will made to the bank to reduce borrowings and first-time buyers will have a fairer chance of borrowing at a time when house prices are on the way down and everybody will be happy.

The problem with Fianna Fail is that they do not know when to intervene and when to let the market reach equilibrium.
They have caused this bubble with interventions and tax incentives in the past. Tax incentives for property were needed in the '80s and were introduced for urban regeneration in inner city Dublin and other areas countrywide. It stimulated the market when it was necessary, however it should have been stopped in the late '90s. It wasn't and was only phased out in July 2008. Other incentives we introduced this decade also stimulated the market when it was not needed. If they had phased them out at the appropriate time the extent of the market collapse which has been evident over the last 18 months would have been less severe on the economy as a whole.
Now is the time. We do need intervention and the problem we face is that FF may not have the will to make interventions as the public may see it as further benefits to developers rather than to the market as a whole. With european and local elections next year it will be an interesting budget.

Quite simply there is a better solution: provide a substantial increase in local authority housing so that up to 50% of the so-called "private" rented sector is not in fact a proxy for public housing at grossly inflated prices ending up in designer handbags and fancy foreign holidays for the landlord class.
With this cushion pulled out of the private rented sector rents would fall to realistic levels and enable people paying rent out of their own pockets to save up for a deposit on a house. Students could afford to go to college without taking out enormous loans. And it would move a lot of speculators from the market.
Secondly, I would take "empty" homes. They provide no benefit to the community and cost money to maintain the local infrastructure. If a home is not inhabited for 100 days a year, tax it at a rate equivalent to the cost of providing local waste, water and services to the local community. €250 a month would be a nice start.