Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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22. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government when the new tenant purchase scheme which was legislated for in 2014 will come into effect. [22071/15]

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Part 3 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 provides for a new tenant purchase scheme for the purchase of existing local authority houses along incremental purchase lines.  The scheme is an important part of the Government's strategy to promote sustainable communities by enabling local authority tenants to purchase their homes.

The Government's Social Housing Strategy 2020includes a commitment to make the Regulations necessary for the scheme's introduction, in the second quarter of 2015, which will set out the full details involved. It is expected that the new scheme will commence at the earliest possible date following the making of the Regulations which are at an advanced stage of drafting.

The 1995 Tenant Purchase Scheme for existing local authority houses and the 2011 Fixed-Term Tenant Purchase Scheme for long-standing tenants closed in June 2014 and June 2013, respectively. There are incremental purchase schemes currently in operation for the sale of newly-built local authority houses and existing local authority apartments, which came into operation in June 2010 and January 2012, respectively.

The new scheme will operate along the lines of the incremental purchase model currently operating for local authority apartments and certain new local authority houses, which involve discounts for purchasers linked to household income. The discount will be applied to the purchase price of the house to be determined by the local authority in accordance with the method to be prescribed in Regulations. I intend to relate the purchase price of the house to its market value, with replacement costs also being taken into account.

Full details of the scheme, including the income related discounts available to tenant purchasers, will be set out in Regulations that I will make in advance of its introduction.