Dáil debates

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Other Questions

House Purchase Schemes

2:35 pm

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am very supportive of facilitating tenants in purchasing their houses or apartments. In 2010 we informed tenants that the 1995 scheme was going to be brought to a conclusion at the end of 2012. Quite an amount of notice was given. I am sure the Deputy will recall that we discussed the matter in the House. Everyone agreed that we should inform tenants that the scheme would be coming to an end and that if they were interested in tenant purchase, they should submit applications. I also informed the House at the time that we would allow one year - this year - for the processing of outstanding applications from the 1995 scheme. There was also a once-off scheme in 2011 under which tenants with up to 15 years tenancy could avail of a maximum discount of 45% of the selling price of their homes. We did, therefore, provide plenty of advance warning.

I want to bring forward the legislation as quickly as possible. As the Deputy is aware, a number of Bills relating to housing are in the offing. I refer to that which relates to the Residential Tenancies Board and that which may or may not be introduced this week and which deals with the setting of new rents. There will also be another housing Bill later in the year and I intend to bring it forward as quickly as possible. It is not the case that we wish to delay matters in any way. We want to facilitate people in purchasing their houses. As already stated, however, plenty of advance warning was given in respect of the previous scheme coming to an end. We asked those who were interested in purchasing to submit their applications before the end of last year.

Comments

Car. H.
Posted on 13 Apr 2014 7:06 pm (Report this comment)

Dear Minister. You have made the comment a few times :plenty of advance warning was given in respect of the previous scheme coming to an end. We asked those who were interested in purchasing to submit their applications before the end of last year...... I have only recently found out that the TPS was extended by 6 months. I was one of the unfortunate tenants that attempted/applied to buy my house within the / before the closing date but was not successful because I could not secure a mortgage based on incorrect details logged on the ICB files. My local authority knew of the reasons why we could not proceed, all of the above takes a long time especially if you are a tenant that struggled for many years as a single parent, it took time to pay of loans at the time that banks told me I needed to do in order for me to obtain a mortgage ... considering that it took a while to do this because of decrease in wages, an increase in tax, added deductions of usc & JMB making me a public servant for 1 day for the purpose of deducting an extra €30 a week from my pay because I work in an office in a school ... all of the above because of bank bailouts & then what a joke to be told that they would not give us a mortgage afterall. In an ideal world minister, a year or 2 would be plenty of time for someone to apply to buy their council house BUT please do not insult me by commenting that i HAD plenty of time to avail of this offer. TO DATE I AM STILL BAILING OUT THE BANKS & I am still being refused a mortgage - now I am being told that I am too old. So work that one out for me in a repeated comment because I am at my wits end & I hope I survive life itself before I ever get a chance to buy my home because I don't feel like I can take any more of this low quality of living. I can tell you myself & my husband work full-time, my husband is a taxi driver & works from dusk to dawn every night & struggles, I mean genuinely struggles to earn his wage, he is entitled to no help the weeks he doesnt earn enough to get by & he gets no help when he's out sick or laid up in hospital after a serious operation !!!!! I have worked all my life since I was 17, have never been out of work, was a single parent for 13 years & never claimed from or depended on social welfare BUT I am living in what feels like the dark ages & as a dlrococ tenant imagine I have not progressed to being a home owner now 20 years on. I have been paying rent to the council for 20 years surely I have some status - I have no arrears & I would be paying less for buying my house than I am presently paying in rent.

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