Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Deputy Grealish and his friends and colleagues to the Gallery. My colleague, Senator Crowe, who is from the same constituency, has already spoken; he will hardly get an opportunity to welcome them so I will do so on his behalf.

The reintroduced tenant purchase scheme is long overdue, but I have encountered a problem. Perhaps some of the clerical officers dealing with it are not fully aware of the implications or of the relevant legislation, or perhaps I have it wrong. My understanding is that someone buys a property and there is a clawback. There always had been a clawback, but now it will be over 30 years at 2%. If a 60-year-old bought a house and, God forbid, died at 70 years of age or had to sell it for some particular reason, there would be a 20-year clawback. At 2% per year, that would amount to 40% of the house’s value when the person bought it. This is a serious issue and seems to be an impediment to the scheme. We should look into it. Perhaps we could invite the Minister to the House for a debate on the tenant purchase scheme, which was shelved for a long time. Every Senator has dealt with people who are on the waiting list to buy their own homes. The scheme has only been reintroduced and there are already a couple of glitches in it. If possible, inviting the Minister to discuss the scheme and thrash the points out a bit more would be worthwhile.

Secondly, I read something in the newspaper today that surprised me. Dublin County Council-----