Having listened to the previous item, this following matter is very relevant. The disabled person's grant scheme is now 30 years old. It is still funded on a discretionary basis and there is no right to the grant on the basis of need. There is only partial funding in respect of each application. I have raised this matter because of two cases I have come across. I would like to outline the facts to the Minister for his own information, without making a special plea for any case in particular.
One example concerns an application for the grant by somebody who is in receipt of a disabled person's parking permit issued by the Irish Wheelchair Association, together with a letter from an occupational therapist and a letter from a hospital outlining the person's illness. In that case the grant was refused. In another instance a daughter and her husband had moved to live with her father in a local authority house which has since been purchased. Had they not moved in that man would be in a home today or in special care at huge cost to the taxpayer, not to mention the human aspect. They applied to the local authority for a disabled person's grant to provide the necessary accommodation. After a period of months they received a letter informing them that under the terms of the scheme a grant application could not be considered where work had commenced prior to receipt by the council of the application for a grant. This was incorrect; an application had been submitted. As they could not wait, the builder – if one can find a builder in Dublin, one is lucky – moved in and commenced the necessary work. This unfortunate couple have to meet the full cost of the alterations.
We either have a disabled person's grants scheme based on need, rather than bureaucracy, or we do not. In the case of the other application which was refused the person concerned has a parking permit from the Irish Wheelchair Association, a letter from an occupational therapist and another from a hospital. Although eligible for a grant on the basis of their income, they have to fund the full cost of the necessary work, including the cost of preparing plans and other outgoings.
The reason I raise this matter is that each local authority operates the scheme in its functional area and that the rules and regulations vary from local authority to local authority. Two-thirds of the grant issued by a local authority is recouped from the Department of the Environment and Local Government. In my local authority area the maximum grant payable is £14,000, for which one would not get a chicken run today. Be that as it may, why should the Department of the Environment and Local Government not have a standard scheme applicable throughout the country with the same rules and regulations and based on need? This would obviate the need for each local authority to include a specified amount in its estimates. Despite the level of need, they do not have the money to pay grants.
I ask the Minister of State to put in place a standard scheme based on need. Even if income limits are introduced, I hope we will reach the stage where the Department of the Environment and Local Government will meet the full cost of the maximum grant payable. As a former member of a local authority and as an ex-Lord Mayor of Cork, the Minister of State is well aware that the majority of those who apply for grants in respect of elderly parents or relatives have very little income.
I am not making a political point. This scheme has been in place for 30 years. I ask the Minister of State to take it by the scruff of the neck, look at it, put a standard scheme in place and meet the full cost of the maximum grant payable. If he wishes to introduce income limits or a waiver scheme, so be it, but the scheme should apply equally throughout the country. Elderly or disabled persons should not be forced into homes and hospitals at huge expense when children or relatives are prepared to look after them in their own homes.
