Vol. 547 No. 3
269 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if his Department will fund local authorities which wish to install central heating in the homes of elderly tenants who cannot afford to do so themselves; and if he will make provision for such a scheme. [3265/02]
The management, maintenance and improvement of their existing rented dwellings is the responsibility of local authorities to be defrayed from their own resources. It is a matter for individual local authorities to prioritise programmes of maintenance and improvement works within these resources.
Where capital funding is provided under my Department's remedial works scheme to assist authorities to carry out major essential works to dwellings in designated estates, the installation of central heating may form part of the work undertaken. Local authorities may also seek my Department's approval to use their internal capital receipts which are surplus to the requirements of their local authority housing construction and remedial work scheme programmes for necessary capital works to their rented housing stock, including, where necessary, the installation of central heating. Apart from the foregoing, there is no specific funding mechanism available from my Department to fund the installation of central heating in local authority rented dwellings.
