Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I commend this amendment to the Minister. The cost would be relatively modest but it would address an anomaly which I do not believe it was the Minister's intention to create when the scheme was created. The scheme has been very successful for people renovating their homes and it has had the effect from the Revenue Commissioners' point of view of being done by registered contractors, cutting down on the grey economy. It is not available to people in local authority homes. There is a large stock of local authority houses, many of which could do with being insulated and the replacement of windows and fireplaces. Many tenants do that in a situation where for a couple of decades local authorities have done very few repairs. If tenants are in employment, they may well plan, often with the help of a credit union loan, to refurbish the house but because they are tenants rather than mortgage holders or landlords, the two specified groups who can take advantage of a really popular scheme which has generated employment and improved the housing stock, they cannot avail of it. I have congratulated the Minister on the scheme on several occasions and support it strongly but it would be helpful to make it available to tenants, especially where significant work is being done such as building work, or a new bathroom or porch, and allow them to recover the VAT in due course in the same way as owners are able to do.