Sinn Féin has accused the Finance Minister Michael Noonan of misleading to the Dáil about the scheme for first-time buyers.

It comes after Mr Noonan told the Dáil on Budget Day that he had discussed the scheme “with the governor of the Central Bank”.

But the governor, Philip Lane, has told opposition TDs he was only consulted about its impact on its mortgage lending rules.

Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty, says it is clear now that the policy has been poorly thought out.

Mr Doherty said: “I thought, and I was obviously naïve in this, I thought we left behind policy making on the back of envelopes, I thought that ended at the time when Fianna Fáil got kicked out of office.

“I thought that there was going to be a new approach, that we were going to do evidence-based politics.”