Brendan Smith: Urges ministers to let pensioners buy council homes
Brendan Smith spoke on 6 Oct 2020 about local authority house-purchase rules and urged ministers to change a regulation that he said prevents pensioners who can afford their homes from buying them. He cited two specific pensioner cases and argued the rules should be fair to genuine applicants.
Appeal over two pensioner cases
He said he had recently written to the minister about two pensioners whose council-built houses were on sites they provided almost 30 years ago. According to Brendan Smith, no state funds were spent on those houses since construction and the occupants have the cash to buy their homes but remain deprived of that opportunity.
Concerns about cash buyers and fairness
He warned that any change must guard against unintended consequences of allowing cash buyers to purchase local authority houses. Brendan Smith argued that rules must be fair across the local authority stock and must preserve opportunities for pensioners who legitimately have the resources to buy their homes.
Response to parliamentary exchanges
He endorsed comments made by Deputy Eamon O'Keefe and answered questions from other deputies, stressing that the majority of cases are genuine. He said the funds in the cases he described came from hard work and family support and raised no question about the provenance of that money.
Call to change regulation
Brendan Smith appealed to the minister and a second minister to revisit and amend what he described as a "crazy regulation" that bars these pensioners from purchasing their council houses. He urged a targeted fix rather than a blanket rule that simply allows any cash buyer to purchase local authority homes.
Policy review in context of government programme
He noted that an ongoing review must be refined in line with the programme for government and the agreement on three issues he had previously referenced. He reiterated the need for careful drafting so that reforms are fair and do not harm the wider pool of local authority applicants or housing stock.
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Thank you, Ken Ford. I wholeheartedly endorse every comment that my colleague, Deputy Eamon O'Keefe, has made. I only wrote very recently to Minister O'Brien in regard to two cases. I had two pensioners. I was involved with getting their council house back almost 30 years ago as a public representative. They gave the site and neither of those applicants ever had the state spend one bob on that house since it was built by the council nearly 30 years ago. Those people have the cash to buy the house and they're deprived of it. In each case, the house is in the middle of the little bit of land that have a typical small farm in County Gavin. Those people should not be deprived of the opportunity to buy out their home. So, Minister O'Brien and Minister Brooke, I would appeal to you along with my colleague to change that crazy regulation. Thank you. Thank you very much, Cairne Corle. I thank each of the deputies for their questions. First of all, obviously, in line with the programme for government, the review which had been commenced has to be, obviously, refined because of the agreement that was made with the three issues that I alluded to through the programme for government. Secondly, I think we have to be very careful. You know, as deputies, when we're talking about cash buyers coming in to buy local authority housing, we have to be very careful in the rules we set. The rules we set have a knock-on effect for every applicant throughout the country and while there are very merited cases and very genuine cases, we have to be very careful in terms of the rules we apply to ensure that they're fair, that they're fair in terms of the local authority stock that we have and also that they're giving pensioners a chance who have the money, have the resources and the certainty that they can purchase their own home. So I think we just can't have this bland thing that if someone has cash, they can go and buy a local authority house. And I think, you know, people should know the reasons for that. Thank you. Could I just make one point, Deputy Bork, or Minister Bork, I should say, seem to cast some doubt in regard to the fact that a person would have cash, want to watch out for a person who would have cash to buy a house. What I was talking about was the instance was of people through their own hard work and honour and support from other individual family members are in a position to buy out their house. And there would be no question mark over the authenticity or the provenance of the source of the funding that they would have to buy their local authority house. Thank you, Cian Corla. That's why I did say in my contribution, Cian Corla, the majority are very genuine cases. I was at pains to point that out. Thank you.
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