Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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34. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when eligibility for the tenant purchase scheme will be extended to persons in receipt of the invalidity pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46950/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme was reviewed in 2021 in line with Programme for Government and Housing for All commitments, with a number of changes subsequently coming into effect from 1 February 2022.

The changes include a reduction in the minimum reckonable income required to be eligible under the scheme from €15,000 to €12,500. The time an applicant is required to be in receipt of social housing supports to be able to apply under the scheme has also been revised. This has been increased from one to ten years.

In determining a tenant’s minimum reckonable income, local authorities can include incomes from employment, private pensions, maintenance payments, and certain social welfare payments, including the Invalidity Pension, where the social welfare payment is secondary to employment income.