I welcome the new tenant purchase scheme which will give many families an opportunity to buy out their homes, which is everyone's ambition. I believe there are anomalies in the scheme as it stands in the case where one of a couple whose name would have been on the title of a property previously, whether in the case of a family home, parents' home, or a home from a previous relationship sold following a divorce, for instance, is now in a new relationship. The local authority is able to sell the house to that particular couple but it cannot lend them the money. This arises as a consequence of the incremental purchase charge on the property. These people are then advised to approach the bank for a mortgage but the bank will not lend to these people because of the incremental charge.

There is another anomaly which relates to the €15,000 earned income. This deprives elderly people of the opportunity to purchase their own homes. Everyone wants to purchase their home. These elderly people on pensions are in a position to buy their homes. This relates to houses that will not be returning to the housing stock - that would be a different situation - but they will not. That needs to be changed.

It is difficult for me to speak to individual cases. If the Deputy wishes to give me the details of the case to which he refers, I will look into it. Under the Rebuilding Ireland home loan, people who have separated and come from former relationships are entitled to access that home loan scheme. This is the first tranche, related to the €200 million fund. We are reviewing the implications of some of the different policies that we have put around that tranche to see if we need to make changes prior to the second round being announced.