asked the Minister for the Environment in the case of persons who have bought houses by SDA loans, and where through unemployment cannot make the repayments resulting in eviction by the local authority, whether those persons are entitled to the difference between the amount of the loan left outstanding and the market value of the house at the time of eviction.

Where a local authority recover a house because of default on the part of a borrower in meeting his loan repayments the authority are required, under section 39 of the Housing Act, 1966, to pay to the borrower a sum equal to the difference between the value of the house and the total of the loan outstanding, any interest due and costs incurred by the authority in the recovery and disposal of the house.