I have specifically referred to Kilkenny County Council but my remarks are directed at the schemes operated by the Department of the Environment and Local Government and the Department of Health and Children. I refer specifically to the disabled person's grant scheme, the essential repairs grant, the scheme for improvement works in lieu of local authority housing which is operated by the Department of the Environment and Local Government and the scheme for the elderly operated by the Department of Health and Children through the health boards. Each of these schemes has been developed in a piecemeal way over the years, leading to confusion, bureaucracy, overlapping and bad value for money. It is time we looked at the individual schemes and tried to focus on bringing them into one scheme that would look after the elderly and vulnerable.
The disabled person's grant scheme is operated by Kilkenny County Council in my area. Looking at the Book of Estimates presented to the council, the estimate provided for those grants is nothing short of disastrous. A report has to be referred by the council to an occupational therapist, who is employed by the health board. As a result, there is a delay, another cost and another level of bureaucracy. The matter goes back to the council, where there is an engineer's report and a foreman is involved. Then the work starts. The maximum grant allowable under the scheme is £16,000. Because of the limited amount of money, the time factor and the administrative waste, there is a shortage of funding not just for the year concerned, but on 1 January 2002, when the new funding comes in, Kilkenny County Council will have that entire budget spent almost immediately. That deals with those on the list already – there is no scope for additional applications during the year.
The essential repairs grant is a scheme that remains a mystery to me although I have been on the council since 1974. The scheme is complicated, there is very little money involved and it is practically impossible to qualify for it. Why we have all these schemes, I do not know.
The scheme for works in lieu of local authority housing is different and is administered by the councils but each individual application has to go to the Department of the Environment and Local Government for approval. One can imagine the lengthy process involved for applicants and councils in getting approval from central Government. It is a waste of time and a sham.
The health boards operate the scheme for the elderly, which involves a maximum of £2,000 and generally allows small works on windows or doors. The funding for this scheme is usually exhausted by the beginning of each year.
Various Departments are involved, the Departments of Health and Children, the Environment and Local Government, Social, Community and Family Affairs and Finance, but is it high time we brought all these together and had one scheme which would serve our requirements? It should not be aspirational for people to want proper heating, windows and doors and a downstairs shower for those who cannot use stairs. It is time we put all this together as, although there is possibly enough money going into the scheme, too much of it is being wasted on administrative costs and on layers of bureaucracy.
I have argued for a long time that the fund for the free fuel scheme, administered by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, should be increased. I believe the scheme should be included in the overall review I seek. A single Department should have responsibility of looking after a proper scheme, in which all moneys would be pooled. There is much more I could say about this issue, but my primary purpose in raising this matter was to try to focus the minds of those in the various Departments. They should come together to provide a decent scheme which serves those in need and not those who administer it.