Housing loan flexibility
The Tánaiste said he would raise the Deputy’s housing point with the Minister and suggested local authority lending rules should be examined flexibly, given high rents and repayment pressures.
I will raise this with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, if the Deputy could bring the specific example. Sometimes specific examples can illustrate a wider systemic problem, or could be the catalyst for a new policy proposal. There are always these issues between thresholds and repayment capacity and so on, but I would err on the flexible side right now. People are paying very high rents and whatever loan they would receive from the local authority to enable them to purchase a house would probably mean them paying less in a mortgage. We should examine that. I will ask the Minister to talk to the Deputy.