Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

There is the structure in which he is allowing the sale to take place and this is a radical change. The existing tenant purchase scheme of the 3% over a ten-year period, maximising to 30%, will not be available to those who buy flats, regardless of whether they have been trying to buy for the past ten years or are trying to buy it next week. This scheme is now gone and what is being introduced is a different type of tenant purchase scheme. The Minister of State is correct in that it is based on ability to pay or affordability. What is happening here is a unique and anomalous situation where people have been willing to pay for the past ten years but the councils would not take their money because the House did not provide the legislative framework to allow the money to be taken from them.

See this speech in context