Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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345. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if, in the context of a housing strategy, consideration will be given to assisting persons residing in large family homes but with grown up children and no longer in need such a house type in acquiring financial assistance such as a bridging loan to trade down to a smaller size home and thereby improve the availability of larger houses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28508/14]

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 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 creditworthy 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 As such, the scheme is a temporary one which will be withdrawn once conditions in credit markets return to normal patterns.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 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. The option currently available for non-first time local authority homeowners wishing to relocate is to seek home loan facilities from one of the commercial lending institutions.

The Government’s recently published Construction 2020 – A Strategy for a Renewed Construction Sectoraims to build a well-financed, competitive and innovative approach to construction and housing, building to the highest standards, at realistic levels and with consumer protection at its heart. Construction 2020 contains 75 Actions in total and my Department, together with the Housing Agency, will be directly involved in the delivery of over 30 of these Actions. The strategy seeks to address issues such as access to mortgage finance on reasonable and sustainable terms, explicitly recognising the need for greater mobility in the private housing market. Action 4, which is being led by the Department of Finance, commits to examining the key barriers to housing mobility.