A Kerry County Councillor has welcomed the changes announced by Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien to the Tenant Purchase Scheme.
“Amongst the changes to the scheme that will come into effect early next week is a reduction in the minimum qualifying reckonable income from €12,500 to €11,000 per annum,” said Fianna Fáil Councillor Michael Cahill.
This will enable more older tenants to qualify to purchase their home and the widows / widowers / surviving civil partner’s pension will now be included as primary reckonable income when determining eligibility for the scheme” said Cllr. Cahill.
Blatant Discrimination
“I stated previously on a number of occasions that widows, widowers and surviving civil partners were being blatantly discriminated against and that this was an anomaly in the scheme criteria that had to be addressed,” he said.
“I’m delighted to see that Minister O’Brien moved to correct it following I raising it publicly and directly with the minister and his officials and my party colleague, Cllr. Mikey Sheehy also raised the matter, said the Rossbeigh based councillor.
Pensions and Allowances
The Blind Pension, Invalidity Pension and disability allowance will also be included as primary reckonable income when determining eligibility from 29 January 29th.
“This is in addition to the contributory and non-contributory State Pension and will enable applicants in receipt of these long term Department of Social Protection payments to qualify to purchase their home under the scheme, subject to meeting all other eligibility criteria.
Window of Opportunity
“This will open the window of opportunity for a lot more tenants to purchase their homes and will have a knock on affect hopefully to enable Kerry County Council to provide more tenancies for those on our waiting list,” Councillor Cahill concluded.
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