Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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284. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to introduce initiatives for persons who have a mortgage with a local authority and who wish to trade up to a larger house to accommodate a bigger family size, similar to products which are available through some of the banks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10770/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Government’s housing policy statement published in June 2011 marked a significant departure for housing in Ireland, including a shift to a tenure neutral high level objective, and a clear commitment to restoring balance to the housing sector generally through a lesser reliance on home ownership. The statement also announced the standing down of all affordable housing schemes on the basis that these had been symptoms of, rather than solutions to, an overheated property market.

The policy statement reaffirms the State’s commitment to supporting access to home ownership for lower to middle income households and the current range of paths to home ownership will remain in place in that regard.

There are two types of house purchase loan available from local authorities: standard annuity loans targeted at lower income first time buyers and those under the Home Choice Loan scheme which are available to qualifying middle income first time buyers affected by the “credit crunch”.

The terms and conditions governing the operation, including eligibility terms, of annuity mortgages and the Home Choice Loan are set out under various Regulations such as the Housing (Local Authority Loans) Regulations 2009, the Housing (Home Choice Loan) Regulations 2009, and most recently in the Housing (Local Authority Loans) Regulations 2012. These are available on my Department’s website:

It is not the intention of the Home Choice Loan scheme – or of any other Government intervention in the housing sector – to incentivise people into the market. It is designed only to facilitate credit worthy households who have been affected by conditions in the mortgage market.

As such, the scheme is a temporary one which will be withdrawn once conditions in credit markets return to normal patterns. Recent data published by the Central Bank would indicate that that point has not yet been reached.

To ensure effective targeting of limited resources, Local Authority loan finance continues to be available to first time buyers only. As regards the specific scenario referred to in the question, I am aware that some homeowners who purchased properties from Local Authorities in the boom period now find that the property is no longer suitable for their changed circumstances and would wish , for example, to move to a larger home . The option currently available for non-first time Local Authority homeowners is to seek home loan facilities in the private sector.