Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

I congratulate my colleague, Deputy Gilmore, on his paper detailing a new national housing plan. In it he has included a section whereby persons who are tenants of voluntary rental subsidy schemes can purchase their own homes. This scheme was implemented some years ago to provide houses for those on low incomes. At the time, it seemed a good scheme, and many obtained their first family home through that process. However, since that time we have moved to a position where a participant in such a scheme cannot purchase a house, and the rent he or she pays is uncapped.

In many instances those schemes are adjacent to, or part of, a local authority initiative. There is the person in the voluntary rental subsidy scheme paying an uncapped rent and unable to purchase his or her house. On the other side of the road, the local authority tenant has a capped rent and can purchase his or her house after a year's tenancy.

That inequality is unbelievable in current circumstances, since those involved in the rental subsidy scheme put their money together and co-operated to develop a scheme and policy on housing applicable to them. However, the sad situation is that the Government has never accepted they are entitled as a community to purchase their own homes and move forward as families in an area that they developed. They worked together to ensure the community would develop as such, and yet we see inequality between the two sides of the road. Local authority tenants may buy after one year, and the other person, with a 99-year lease, can never say he or she can pass on the house to a loved one or own the family home.

This was discussed here when questions were last put to the Minister. Deputy Stagg raised the feeling that something can be done in this regard. I ask the Minister to move forward and ensure that in the budget provision is made on funding the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to put in place a tenant purchase scheme, as detailed in the housing plan that Deputy Gilmore proposes.

As Deputy Catherine Murphy has already mentioned, there are major problems regarding shared ownership. We see it is practically irrelevant in Kildare, since the ceiling that Kildare County Council has put on the loan of €185,000 is not applicable to any housing estate in the county. Even secondhand houses are going for more than €200,000. There are several problems in this regard. First, people who qualify for the €185,000 do not, in any instance, qualify for the rent subsidy that attaches to the scheme, owing to their income being over the limit of €25,000. There is therefore no longer any relevance to the rent subsidy part of that scheme, which must be urgently examined.

The 100% loans now available from the banks require that a person have an income of over €45,000 to apply. A certain group is not able to purchase a house, since the scheme is not there. Even if successful, they would not consider the scheme charged a good rate. I checked with all the banks today, including AIB, Bank of Scotland Ireland, Bank of Ireland, and the TSB. Every one had a lower rate of repayment than the shared ownership scheme. That unacceptable position will have to be addressed, and I ask that the Minister consider those two items and decide in that regard. When the Labour Party is in Government after the next election, they will certainly be addressed.

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