The cabinet's agreed to change the rules around the Fair Deal scheme, potentially freeing up thousands of empty homes.
Under the changes the proportion of rental income that has to be paid will be halved from 80 to 40 per cent.
It's estimated 8-thousand properties are empty as a result of the scheme that helps people access long-term nursing home care.
Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien says it will help bring more homes into the rental market:
"We had a memo brought by Stephen Donnelly in Health, supported by myself that is now half the contribution from 80% to 40%. For rental properties that should free up a lot of properties. I'm going to keep that under review for six months, and we'll review it then in November this year to see whether we need to reduce that further."
