Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last year, we bought 1,830 homes. The original target had been 200. It was reset to 1,500 and we increased it further. Deputy Troy, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and I met the chief executive of Westmeath County Council yesterday. For clarification, so that everyone is clear on this, there is no ceiling on the number of homes a local authority can purchase under the scheme this year. We have the capital in place to support that. I want to be clear on that. I met the local authorities and wrote to them on 4 or 5 July. That letter is available and I will forward it to people.

What the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, spoke about was that where a property is valued at, say, €700,000 and that is more than 50% above the acquisition ceiling set on valuation, that will require sanction from the Department. What Deputy Troy asked about was a circumstance where, for argument's sake, Westmeath County Council was set a target of 50 homes to purchase and it purchased 50 homes and had five more. The council would not have to seek sanction from the Department for that. It can keep going and purchase those homes. I have been very clear with the local authorities in that regard.

I am glad this issue is being discussed because I have received complaints and feedback from Deputies across the country that the scheme was operating very well in some areas and not so well in other areas. We need to keep a watch on that all of the time.

We have sorted the transboundary issue. Previously, there was an issue where a tenant was on one local authority list but living in another local authority area. We have also rectified the issue of under- or over-occupancy such as where two people are living in a three-bedroom home. When this scheme started some local authorities stated they would not purchase such a home. I told them to purchase it and secure the home and tenancy on the basis that the family in question may move to more appropriate accommodation in time. There is no ceiling on the capital allocated to the scheme this year. I want to be very clear with people on that.

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