Vol. 448 No. 6
107 Mr. Hughes asked the Minister for the Environment if he will make a statement on the latest survey his Department has carried out on the housing conditions of the elderly to establish precisely the housing conditions of this group; and the action, if any, his Department is taking to ensure that their needs are met comprehensively. [2529/95]
The results of the assessment of housing needs carried out by each housing authority at 31 March 1993 showed a total of 2,191 households in the elderly category to be in need. Details were published in the Annual Housing Statistics Bulletin for 1993, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas Library. The ESRI is currently, on behalf of my Department, carrying out an indepth analysis of all categories of housing need, including the elderly, identified in the 1993 assessment.
Each housing authority, in providing dwellings, is required to have regard to its latest assessment of housing needs and to seek to maintain a reasonable balance between the respective needs of the various classes of persons, including the elderly. A significant part of the funding provided under the capital assistance scheme for the provision of housing accommodation by voluntary housing bodies is devoted to accommodation for the elderly. Where such schemes for elderly persons are being provided, a common room and the fixtures and facilities normally needed as part of a sheltered housing scheme may be provided if these are warranted by the size of a scheme.
Separate funding is provided annually by my Department for the Task Force on Special Housing Aid for the Elderly under which improvements may be carried out to the housing conditions of elderly persons living on their own in unfit or insanitary accommodation. The elderly also benefit from the disabled persons and essential repair grant schemes operated by local authorities and which are part-funded by my Department.
