Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are three different schemes involved. The first is the tenant in situ scheme with respect to social housing tenants. That is in operation. Dublin City Council alone is in the process of purchasing approximately 300 properties. We are confident we will meet the target of 1,500 homes purchased under the tenantin situscheme this year. We may even have to go higher if we are able to purchase more. From 1 April, that is being extended to people who do not qualify for social housing but who do qualify for cost rental. We are in talks with approved housing bodies to make that real within a week or two. First refusal is more complicated and will require primary legislation, which will take a number of months. We are looking at different models of how this is done in different countries. It is done differently in different countries. I will not go into too much detail but there are different ways of doing this and the scheme is going to take a few months to establish.

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