The deadline for existing applicants for the first time buyers' grant has been extended by five months.
Last November the Government scrapped the grant as part of its cost-cutting measures, stipulating that no new applications would be accepted after December 4th, 2002.
Existing applicants also had to be resident in their new homes by November 14th of this year.
Yesterday, however, the Department of the Environment said that the deadline for existing applicants was being extended to April 2nd.
It emerged that upwards of 5,000 existing applicants who had made the December 2002 deadline were not in a position to move into their new homes by November 13th as the houses had not been completed.
In a statement yesterday, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said that when "genuine problems were brought to my attention, I indicated that common sense would apply.
"I have been anxious to address genuine cases of difficulty among existing applicants who, through no fault of their own, are not able to occupy their houses by the 13th November next."
Some 13,487 applications were received between November 14th, 2002 - the date the abolition was announced - and December 4th, the deadline for applications.
A total of 8,353 grants, worth 3,610 to each applicant, have been paid this year to date.
However at the beginning of this month, 5,500 people who applied for the first-time buyers' grant before it was removed have still to receive the payment, which is worth €3,810.