DUBLIN CITY COUNCILLORS have voted to approve a new affordable housing scheme for individuals who fall over the threshold for social housing.

Councillors voted to approve the introduction of the new scheme at City Hall during the council’s final monthly meeting of its current cycle this evening.

The proposal was put to them via an emergency motion from independent councillors Mannix Flynn and Cieran Perry and Sinn Féin’s Seamus McGrattan.

Under the scheme, tenants who fall above the threshold for social housing, but who are unable to afford a mortgage, pay rent for houses built on council land that meets the cost of construction.

The move is designed to prevent developers and landlords from entering the market for profit, and links rents to the income of tenants – known as the ‘Vienna Model’ of housing.

As part of the motion, the council will support the introduction of two cost-rental developments in Inchicore and Ballymun.

It will also promote the expansion of the model on council lands, and advocate for the developments of cost rental housing on state-owned lands.

The houses involved in the scheme have yet to be built, and the council will begin to decide how to allocate the housing once it is completed.

Concerns had been raised that the model could discriminate against those who had left Dublin, with suggestions that they would be punished by being pushed down the priority list after leaving the county because of high rents.

However, the motion was unanimously passed by councillors this evening.

Similar motions approving affordable housing were also passed at monthly meetings of Fingal County Council and Dun Laoighaire-Rathdown County Council today, while South Dublin County Council approved a motion on the matter earlier this month.