Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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476. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he has given consideration to the current economic difficulty facing some local authority tenants, who are relying solely on social welfare payments at the moment; if he will consider a provision in the legislation currently being finalised in his Department whereby these tenants can avail of the incremental purchase scheme to enable them to purchase their local authority homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23677/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Tenants are not precluded from tenant purchase by virtue of being social welfare recipients and there is no intention to change this practice in the future. However, tenants seeking to fund their purchase through loan finance from the local authority must meet the criteria that apply to such loans.

Provisions governing mortgage lending by local authorities are set out in the Housing (Local Authority Loans) Regulations 2012 and associated credit policy. This policy provides that loans are not available to social welfare recipients , except where these constitute long-term Department of Social Protection payments in conjunction with a primary income of a permanent and salaried nature . The final decision on whether to approve a loan in a particular case lies wit h the relevant local authority, which must satisfy itself as to the borrower’s capacity to service the loan over its full term.