Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 October 2016
140. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will consider examining the Rentplus scheme in the UK, which helps people to buy affordable homes, with a view to initiating a similar scheme across the State. [28873/16]
View answerI assume that the Deputy is referring to the rent-to-buy scheme operated by Rentplus-UK Ltd. I have no plans to introduce a similar scheme in Ireland, nor am I aware of plans by any development company in the State to initiate such a scheme.
The Government recognises the major challenges presented by the shortage of housing at affordable prices, rising rents and the unacceptably high level of homelessness. That is why, in publishing the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the Government has set out a practical and readily implementable set of actions to create a functioning and sustainable housing system. The Action Plan includes more than 80 separate actions and is very much focussed on the increased supply of affordable homes in the right locations. Rebuilding Ireland can be accessed at the following link: http://rebuildingireland.ie/Rebuilding%20Ireland_Action%20Plan.pdf.
The Plan also commits to the introduction of a new pilot affordable rental scheme, to enhance the capacity of the private rented sector to provide quality and affordable accommodation for households, currently paying a disproportionate amount of disposable income on rent. The objective of this scheme will be to provide long-term affordable accommodation for low to moderate income key-worker households in urban areas of high demand and to provide an economic incentive to increase supply of rental accommodation. Subject to the finalisation of the scheme by Government and market uptake thereafter, the scheme is expected to deliver at least 2,000 rental properties over a range of projects by 2018.
Any housing-related taxation matters are a matter for the Minister for Finance to consider in a Budgetary context.
