Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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525. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government when the new tenant purchase scheme which was announced will become operational; the terms and conditions thereof; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38520/14]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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560. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government when the incremental purchase scheme for existing local authority dwellings will be operational; the discounts that will be involved for tenants; the way this will relate to a household income; the way the discounted related charge on the property will dwindle away over a period; when the regulations outlining the new scheme will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38144/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 525 and 560 together.

I intend in the coming months to make the commencement order and regulations that will enable the new tenant purchase scheme for existing local authority houses along incremental purchase lines to come into operation under Part 3 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014. I have not finalised the detailed terms of the new Scheme and will do so in the context of making the required regulations.

As with the existing incremental purchase sales schemes for local authority apartments and newly built local authority houses, Part 3 of the 2014 Act provides that, where the tenant purchaser complies with the conditions of the sale of the house, the incremental purchase charge on the property will reduce annually by the equivalent of 2% of the value of the property, thus eliminating the entire charge by the end of the charge period. Where the tenant purchaser, with the consent of the housing authority, resells the dwelling within the charge period, he or she must pay to the council the value on the date of resale of the remaining incremental purchase charge on the property.