Special needs campaigner says tenant purchase plan is ‘discriminatory’

The new tenant purchase scheme has been described as discriminatory by a special needs campaigner — because it does not classify the work of Ireland’s 200,000 carers as real employment.

The Department of the Environment scheme offers local authority tenants massive discounts to purchase their homes.

The scheme, the first of its kind introduced since 1995, excludes people who receive over 50% of their income from social welfare, including those in receipt of the carer’s allowance and the old-age pension.