Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-18
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I thank Deputy Maxwell for raising this issue on behalf of people in Cavan and Monaghan where he sees it as an issue on the ground, and it has been brought to his attention. The programme for Government and the Government's new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, commit to maintaining the right of social housing tenants to purchase their home. The aim of the tenant incremental purchase scheme was to try to strike that balance but balance is always a subjective term that requires constant monitoring to ensure the balance is always right. That balance is between increasing the scope for those who are in receipt of long-term housing support to purchase their local authority home and doing it in a way that does not unduly diminish local authority housing stock.
As Deputy Maxwell reminded us, there is a difference at the moment where the scheme provides for the purchase by eligible tenants of council houses which are available for sale under the scheme, and the scheme is underpinned by the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 and the housing (sale of local authority houses) regulation of 2015. Those regulations provide for a number of specified classes of houses to be excluded from sale, including houses transferred to councils for the purpose of providing social housing under Part V, which is really the nub of the issue that Deputy Maxwell brought up. Some other classes of property, for example, houses specifically designed for older people, group Traveller housing schemes and houses provided to facilitate people with disability transferring from institutional care to community-based living are also excluded from the current scheme.
The provisions of Part V of the Planning and Development Act are, as Deputy Maxwell said, designed to enable the development of mixed-tenure sustainable communities, and to make sure that there is that mix and that the aim is not eroded over time. We all agree, and I know the Deputy said it too, that the continued development of mixed-tenure communities is important in terms of social integration and cohesion.
The Deputy's broader point about the need to review and engage on this is one that I, the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, and the Minister, Deputy Browne, are happy to engage on as well because it is always important to keep these things under review. I know that the Deputy has some real and practical examples in his own constituency, and if he is happy to share them with me and the Ministers, we will certainly have an engagement in relation to them.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-18