asked the Minister for the Environment when the £5,000 grant for house purchase will come into operation.

27.

asked the Minister for the Environment the stage at which local authority tenants-tenant purchasers buying houses in the private sector will be paid the £5,000 grant; if it will be paid on entering into contract or on completion of mortgage; and if the grant can be used as a deposit.

30.

asked the Minister for the Environment if there are any circumstances where a local authority tenant purchasing a private house will in fact be paid less than the £5,000 grant mentioned in Building on Reality, 1985-1987.

31.

asked the Minister for the Environment if the amount of a housing finance loan will be reduced on payment by £5,000 where the applicant is the tenant of a local authority house.

32.

asked the Minister for the Environment if he will state how the new £5,000 grant, applicable to local authority tenants of three years standing or more will apply to a person (details supplied) in Dublin 12 who is surrendering a local authority house where he has been a tenant for almost five years as he is a Housing Finance Agency loan applicant with Dublin Corporation to purchase a house, the approval for which is about to issue.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 26, 27, 30, 31 and 32 together.

A circular letter has issued today to housing authorities giving details of the new grant. The grant scheme will be administered generally by local authorities and payments will be made by my Department on receipt of the appropriate payment certificates from local authorities.

As regards the specific matters raised in the questions the position is as follows: The operative date for the new scheme is 2 October 1984. Subject to meeting the other grant conditions, an applicant will be eligible to receive the grant on occupation of the private house if the contract for the purchase of the private house was entered into on or after 2 October 1984, or where a new house is being built by him on his own site, if the foundations were completed on or after that date. The grant will be payable in one sum when the applicant has surrendered vacant possession of his dwelling to the local authority and has purchased and occupied the private dwelling.

Because of the nature of the scheme, the actual payment of the grant cannot be made until the house has been purchased and occupied. Some applicants may wish to use the availability of the grant in lieu of a deposit and for this purpose, local authorities are being asked to raise no objection if, for example, applicants wish to assign the payment to a third party such as a lending agency or a builder.

The grant will in all cases be £5,000.

In order to ensure that moneys provided under the grant scheme will actually be applied towards the building or purchase of a house, it will be a condition of the scheme that any loan, together with grants payable, other than the mortgage subsidy, must not exceed the gross cost of the house, including reasonable legal and other incidental expenses. There is no question, however, of any automatic reduction of the amount of a loan by the amount of grant payable.

It would not be possible to anticipate the result of any specific application for a grant. It will be a matter for the local authority concerned to deal with the application in accordance with the terms of the scheme.