13 April 2005

Environment

Local Authority Sales

Ciarán Cuffe asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the progress which has been made at a national level in allowing the sale of local authority flats to tenants; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government:  

Draft proposals to introduce a tenant purchase scheme for local authority flats were forwarded to my Department by Dublin City Council in June 2004. Arising out of this a Working Group, consisting of Departmental and local authority officials, was set up to consider the matter. The Group has met on a number of occasions and its work is continuing. The present position is that revised proposals are being prepared by Dublin and Cork City Councils for submission to the Department. 

While a scheme for the purchase of local authority houses has been successfully operating for many years, the sale of local authority flats poses more difficult problems in particular in relation to property conveyance, insurance, the management of flat complexes and service charges. When the sale of flats was last examined in the early 1990’s it was concluded that practical arrangements could not be guaranteed for the sale of flats that would be satisfactory for the purchaser, the local authority and the remaining tenants. 

Present efforts are intended to revisit this matter with a view to seeing if the very real difficulties involved in the sale of flats can be overcome and a scheme satisfactory to all the key parties designed. Because of the complex issues involved I am not in a position at this stage to say when a decision will be reached.