Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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661. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when he plans to launch a new tenant purchase scheme for long-term social housing tenants; and if carer's allowance will be included as allowable income. [6712/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The 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 and having been in receipt of social housing support for at least one year.

The minimum reckonable income for eligibility under the scheme is determined by the relevant local 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, local authorities 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. A number of income sources, including certain social welfare payments, are disregarded for the purposes of determining reckonable income. The list of income disregards includes carer’s allowance, as it is deemed not to be long-term in nature (when compared to the term over which the property is bought).

In line with the commitment given in the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, a review of the first 12 months of the Tenant Purchase Scheme’s operation has been undertaken. The review has incorporated analysis of comprehensive data received from local authorities regarding the operation of the scheme during 2016 and a wide-ranging public consultation process, which took place in 2017 and saw submissions received from individuals, elected representatives and organisations.

The review is now complete and a full report setting out findings and recommendations has been prepared.  I expect to be in a position to publish the outcome of the review shortly.