Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 201: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans regarding section 90 of the Housing Act 1966 and the Housing (Sale of Houses to Long-standing Tenants) Regulations 2011; and his plans regarding the incremental purchase scheme. [8172/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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1Part 3 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provision) Act, 2009 provides for an incremental purchase scheme in respect of newly – built houses reserved by housing authorities for the purpose. Regulations to implement the Incremental Purchase Scheme for new homes were made in June 2010.

A new tenant purchase scheme under the provisions of section 90 of the Housing Act, 1966 – the 2011 Tenant Purchase Scheme - was introduced recently to allow local authority tenants to avail of a discount of up to 45% on the market price of a house they are eligible to purchase under the scheme. This scheme applies only to tenants of 10 years standing or longer, and will be open for applications only until the end of this year, 2011. The new scheme does not replace the existing 1995 Tenant Purchase Scheme, which remains in place for tenants with up to 10 years tenancy and provides for a maximum discount of 30%.

However, as announced in June 2010, it remains the intention that the tenant purchase arrangements be wound down in 2012 to be replaced by a new scheme based on the incremental purchase model. This change will require amending legislation. I will consider this issue in more detail as part of the wider review of social housing policy generally which will be undertaken in the coming months. My Department has recently reminded housing authorities to inform all existing tenants of houses of the decision to end the tenant purchase scheme in 2012 so that they have sufficient time to apply to purchase their home under the existing scheme if they so wish.