Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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551. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the policy relating to assessment of full and half-rate carer's allowance payments in relation to the local authority home loan; if the payments are assessed as income on all applications; if there is any flexibility in the case that the payment puts an applicant marginally over the income limit; if not, if flexibility will be granted given that most banks refuse to consider carer's allowance payments as income, and the last-attempt nature of the local authority home loan application. [1582/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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In accordance with scheme's rules, the Local Authority Home Loan has an upper gross income limit for scheme eligibility, which takes into account all relevant household income. The income limit is €75,000 for joint applicants nationwide. It is €65,000 for individual applicants seeking to buy a home in the Greater Dublin Area, Cork and Galway and €50,000 in the rest of the country. Annual gross income as reported for the previous tax year is used to determine income eligibility of the applicant(s) for the Local Authority Home Loan scheme, i.e. taxable income. As Carer's Allowance is a taxable source of income, it is included in the determination of income eligibility.

My Department is currently reviewing the Local Authority Home Loan and will consider this matter further.

Decisions on all housing loan applications must be made in accordance with the Regulations establishing the scheme and the credit policy that underpins the scheme, in order to ensure prudence and consistency in approaches in the best interests of both borrowers and lending local authority.

The final decision on Local Authority Home Loan applications is a matter for the relevant local authority.

Further information can be found on the dedicated website localauthorityhomeloan.ie/