Written answers

Wednesday, 16 October 2019

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Tenant Purchase Scheme Eligibility

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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270. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the reason tenants of Traveller specific homes are excluded from consideration under the terms of the incremental tenant purchase scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42363/19]

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Housing (Sale of Local Authority Houses) Regulations 2015, provide the basis for the Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme for existing local authority houses. 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 Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme came into operation on 1 January 2016 and provides for the sale of existing local authority houses only. The 2015 Regulations governing the Scheme provide for a number of specified classes of houses to be excluded from sale, including houses provided to local authorities under Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, houses specifically designed for older persons, group traveller housing and houses provided to facilitate people with disabilities transferring from institutional care to community-based living. The exclusion of these property types ensures the continued availability within the social housing stock of properties that are in short supply.

Local authorities may also, within the provisions of the Regulations, exclude certain houses which, in the opinion of the authority, should not be sold for reasons such as proper stock or estate management. It is a matter for each individual local authority to administer the Scheme in its operational area in line with the over-arching provisions of the governing legislation for the scheme, and in a manner appropriate to its housing requirements.

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