336. Deputy Séamus McGrath asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to introduce a grant incentive scheme for social housing tenants to purchase private housing (details supplied). [50507/26]

The Mortgage Allowance scheme provides for an allowance of up to €11,450 payable over a 5-year period, to tenants or tenant purchasers of local authority housing, to assist them to purchase or have a private house built with a mortgage. The current rates are underpinned by the Housing (Mortgage Allowance) Regulations 2001 and have been in place since 1 January 2002. New applications are still being accepted by local authorities.