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.

Clare County Council wrote to approximately 2,000 eligible tenants regarding the scheme last month and more than 30% who expressed an interest in the scheme have already been ruled out — many as a result of the income exclusions.

Members of the planning and housing strategic policy committee of Clare County Council have expressed their intention to write to the minister for the environment to request that some conditions of the scheme be relaxed — especially in relation to carers and people in receipt of the old age pensions.

Independent Clare county councillor and manager of the Clare Crusaders Clinic in Ennis, Ann Norton, said the scheme was discriminatory and shows how carers are not given the same opportunities as other people.

“I don’t like to use works like discrimination, but this is really putting people into a box. As a carer myself I know that we don’t get the support or the credit that we deserve. Carers are saving the Government so much money by doing the work that they do.

“Being a carer is a 24/7 job and they don’t get the support they need. Unfortunately, you have to fight for everything that you get. This is an example of how carers are not given the same opportunities as other people.”

The scheme offers a 60% discount to tenants on an income of between €15,000 and €20,000, a 50% discount for incomes up to €30,000, and a 40% discount for those with an income over €30,000.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment said the income conditions were put in place to ensure tenants had a sustainable income, so that they could manage the basic requirements of owning a house such as insurance and general maintenance.