Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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135. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will amend the tenant purchase scheme guidelines to allow long-time tenants of county councils to purchase their homes by way of lump sum while not fulfilling the age criteria. [28815/16]

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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136. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will amend the anomaly in the tenant purchase scheme to allow long-term tenants to purchase their homes with funds raised independently of the council while not fulfilling the income criteria. [28816/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 135 and 136 together.

The new Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme came into operation on 1 January 2016. The Scheme is open to eligible tenants, including joint tenants, of local authority houses that are available for sale under the Scheme. To be eligible, tenants must meet certain criteria, including having a minimum reckonable income of €15,000 per annum, having been in receipt of social housing support for at least 1 year and having been allocated a house under a local authority allocation scheme.

In determining reckonable income, the income of the tenants of the house, including adult children that are joint tenants can be included, as can the income of the spouse, civil partner or other partner/co-habitant of a tenant who lives in the house with them.

Reckonable income is calculated as gross income. Income from social welfare payments is included in the reckonable income but only where these payments constitute a secondary source of income.

In order to ensure the sustainability of the scheme, it is essential that an applicant’s income is of a long-term and sustainable nature. This is necessary to ensure that the tenant purchasing the house is in a financial position, as the owner, to maintain and insure the property for the duration of the charged period. This ensures compliance with the conditions of the order transferring the ownership of, and responsibility for, the house from the local authority to the tenant.

In line with the commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Governmentand reaffirmed in the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, I intend to undertake a review of the scheme in January 2017 following the first 12 months of operation and I will bring forward any changes to the terms and conditions of the scheme which are considered necessary based on the evidence gathered at that stage.