Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I want to comment on the sale of the apartments. I welcome the Minister of State's comments that he intends to work on that aspect because it is disappointing that citizens in local authority apartments do not have the same rights as those in dwellings. That is an issue that should be addressed in the interest of equality across all tenancies run by housing authorities. It should be treated as a matter of urgency by the Minister of State in terms of dealing with this issue.

I want to raise another issue that is not directly related to incremental purchase arrangements but is one that has arisen with various local authorities. It concerns voluntary housing associations where the tenants do not have the option of purchasing the houses they have let, despite those housing schemes being financed by the public purse. Did the Minister of State give that issue any consideration in this Bill? I became aware in recent years of many motions from local authorities that were passed, almost unanimously in many cases, requesting movement on this issue. They concerned tenants in long-term tenancies in housing associations requesting the option to purchase the house they lived in. If it had been a council housing estate, they would have had that option, but in housing associations they do not, and that is an issue. Has the Minister of State or his officials considered that issue in the Bill?