Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I accept that this is a complex area and yes, there are initiatives such as the repair and lease scheme, the buy and renew scheme and the acquisitions fund. The difficulty is that there are blockages within the system at present. One of them is the fair deal, or nursing home support scheme. There are 9,000 vacant houses across the country where older people are in long-term care. If those older people lease out their home, they are penalised three times. The capital value of the house is taken into account, the rental income is taken into account, and money going through the bank account is considered as capital on deposit. Will the Minister of State give me an assurance that the anomaly in respect of the fair deal scheme will be resolved to ensure that some of these houses are made available for these schemes?

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