Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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807. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 172 of 30 March 2023, if rent allowance, which was replaced by the housing assistance payment, will be considered as a social housing support for the tenant-purchase scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17391/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme 2016 provides for the purchase by eligible tenants, or joint tenants, of local authority homes available for sale under the scheme.

Applicants must meet certain criteria to qualify under the scheme, including a minimum 10 years in receipt of social housing supports. Such supports include social dwellings provided by local authorities, as well as assistance provided through the Rental Accommodation Scheme and Housing Assistance Payment. The requirement seeks to encourage long-term tenants to stay in their homes and support the development of socially sustainable communities.

Rent supplement is not a social housing support. It is a short-term income support for people living in private rented accommodation who cannot provide for the cost of their accommodation from their own resources. Accordingly, time spent in receipt of rent supplement cannot count towards the time spent in receipt of social housing support and is not reckonable for the purposes of meeting the 10-year criterion.