asked the Minister for the Environment the progress he has made in his efforts to ascertain the housing needs of the physically handicapped; and the efforts being made to provide suitable housing for them.
Written Answers. - Housing of Physically Handicapped.
662.
When housing authorities were asked in January 1980, to assess the nature and extent of accumulated and prospective housing requirements in their areas in the period up to 1985, they were also requested to indicate separately the estimated requirements for housing to cater for the needs of physically handicapped persons. The results of these assessments, which are being analysed by my Department, will form the basis for the White Paper on Housing which I propose to publish around the end of this year. I have also received a submission from the Irish Wheelchair Association, the proposals in which are being examined in conjunction with submissions from other interested parties in the context of the preparation of the White Paper. It will deal, inter alia, with future housing policy for the physically handicapped.
Considerable effort is being made at present in providing suitable housing for the physically handicapped by means of a variety of approaches. As Deputies are aware, responsibility for the provision of housing accommodation for person who are in need of rehousing and unable to provide it from their own resources rest with housing authorities, who are encouraged by my Department to provide appropriate and suitable housing accommodation for the physically handicapped according as the need arises. Decisions and action on the form of housing accommodation to be provided in these cases are primarily matters for the housing authorities concerned in the light of the local housing requirements. Such housing requirements are met by either the provision of specially designed housing units or by the adaptation of existing dwellings. In recent years, the total number of new local authority dwellings so provided or adapted has been approximately 1 per cent of total local authority housing completions.
A grant may also be paid by housing authorities for the provision of an additional room or chalet or for the carrying out of other structural works that in the opinion of the authority are reasonably necessary for the proper accommodation of a physically disabled, severely mentally handicapped or severely mentally ill person. The Department recoup half of the cost incurred by the housing authority, subject to a recoupment limit in any case of £2,000. In April 1981 I raised the limit of recoupment from £1,200 to £2,000 in the Housing Package, 1981.
Voluntary housing associations are also encouraged to provide housing accommodation for the physically handicapped with the aid of a package of financial assistance embracing loan, grant and subsidy. I also announced improvements in the scope of these incentives in the Housing Package, 1981.