Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a point about the local authority home loan. It is a really great option for people who struggle to get a traditional mortgage. I really welcome that we are continuing to expand its income and its house price limits. I would absolutely encourage anyone to look into this option to see if they are eligible. There is, however, an issue that keeps coming up in my office. There is a cohort of people who earn over the limit for social housing but do not earn enough to qualify for the local authority home loan. I am dealing with a case of one woman who is brought over the income limit purely by her benefit-in-kind. This means she cannot qualify for social housing and yet she does not earn enough to meet the repayment conditions of the local authority home loan. This is even though she is currently paying more in rent than she probably would pay in the mortgage repayments. This woman is one of the many people affected by this and who are falling between the cracks. Surely they are exactly the kind of people we want the local authority home loan to be able to support. What can we do and what can we offer these people?

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