Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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260. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will examine an anomaly under the tenant incremental purchase scheme to determine if a person's (details supplied) carer's allowance and other social protection payments can be considered part of their weekly income; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that carer's allowance is taken into account when deciding the amount of rent to be paid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36113/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme came in to operation on 1 January 2016 and offers eligible local authority tenants the opportunity to buy their homes. To be eligible for the Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme, tenants of local authority houses that are available for sale under the Scheme must meet certain criteria, including having a minimum reckonable income of €15,000 per annum. This is in order to ensure that they are in a financial position, as the owner, to maintain and insure the property for the duration of the charged period, in compliance with the conditions of the order transferring the ownership of, and responsibility for, the house from the local authority to the tenant.

The minimum reckonable income for eligibility under the Scheme is determined by the relevant housing authority in accordance with the detailed provisions of the Ministerial Direction issued under Sections 24(3) and (4) of the 2014 Act. In the determination of the minimum reckonable income, housing authorities can include income from a number of different sources and classes, such as from employment, private pensions, maintenance payments and certain social welfare payments, including pensions, where the social welfare payment is secondary to employment income. At present, as set out in the Ministerial direction on reckonable income, the Scheme does not cover those in receipt of Carer’s Allowance.

In line with the commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government and reaffirmed in Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, it is intended that a review of the Scheme will be undertaken in January 2017 following the first 12 months of operation and any changes to the terms and conditions of the scheme which are considered necessary based on the evidence gathered at that stage will be brought forward.