Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 1 Jun 2022

Vol. 1023 No. 2

Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability: Motion [Private Members]

Deputy Seán Canney

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

recognises:

— that Ireland is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which places an onus on signatories to ensure the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others, and the opportunity to choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others and are not obliged to live in a particular living arrangement;

— that the overarching goals of a housing policy should be affordability, sustainability, equality and social inclusion; and

— the importance of the Housing Aid for Older People Grant, the Mobility Aids Grant, and the Housing Adaptation Grant for People with a Disability to enable people to live independently in their own homes for longer;

notes that:

— the unprecedented increase in construction costs, rising costs of materials and the shortage of skilled labour in Ireland is putting the cost of these upgrades and essential works beyond the reach of most of the recipients of such grant assistance;

— there are significant waiting times for people awaiting grant approval;

— unacceptable delays exist for the adaptation of local authority homes to cater for the needs of older tenants and tenants with a disability and/or those people living in overcrowded conditions in local authority properties;

— many people are unable to live in their own homes until essential adaptation works are completed;

— the fixed price grant is no longer effective in the grant applications process; and

— the income thresholds are outdated and need to be reviewed in line with the Consumer Price Index; and

calls on the Government to:

— ensure grants are linked to the cost of the specific works as a percentage of the cost;

— allow discretion for people with disabilities to ensure that the grants meet the individual needs of the disabled person to live independently;

— allocate additional resources to local authorities to manage these schemes and the investment required in local authority housing stock;

— increase the budget allocated by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to ensure that grant schemes can meet the demand and reflect the increase in construction costs;

— increase the upper limits of the grants to reflect the increase in the cost of construction;

— incentivise the development of clustered bungalow housing close to services for older people; and

— review the recently announced, yet unavailable, retrofitting grants to reflect the significant rise in construction and materials costs.

The Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, is welcome to the Chamber. I thank Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, our administrator, for helping us to put the motion together, and Anne Timoney of the Oireachtas Library and Research Service for her assistance in preparing it.

As regards the motion, every Deputy knows how the application process works. Ireland is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which places an onus on signatories to recognise "the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others" and to ensure that persons with disabilities "have the opportunity to choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others and are not obliged to live in a particular living arrangement". The housing adaptation grants are there to help people do that.

It is important to note there has been an unprecedented increase in construction costs, including those relating to materials, and that there is a shortage of skilled labour. That is putting the cost of these adaptations relating to housing assistance for older people and mobility aid grants out of the reach of many. There are significant waiting times for the grants to be approved. There are unacceptable delays in the adaptation of local authority homes to cater for the needs of older tenants, tenants with disabilities and those living in overcrowded conditions in local authority areas. In my constituency, children who have needed a wheelchair since birth are now going into third level education but their houses still have not been adapted to suit their needs. In some of the cases, after years of waiting, the local authority is now proposing to move the entire family into another house in a different location. That is wrong. Due care is not being given to the fact that these children and families need to have accommodation to suit their needs in their own homes.

The fixed price for the grant is no longer effective. The income thresholds are outdated and need to be reviewed in line with the consumer price index. I can state without fear or favour that the grant system has been very good to people through many years since it was first introduced. We have seen the improvements it has made to people's homes. It keeps people in their homes for longer. However, it is an indictment of us, as politicians, idea that the grant has not been changed for the past 12 years. We need to ensure the scheme is brought up to date in such a way that it allows people to live at home. There is a cap of €30,000 on grants. In many cases, that amount would have been sufficient until approximately two years ago. Costs have gone up since then, however, and homeowners now have to borrow to supplement the grant, yet many people with disabilities have no means of paying back such a loan. As I stated, it is a good and very popular scheme but we need to update it and make sure it is fit for purpose going forward.

Last week in my constituency, a headline on the front page of the Tuam Herald stated that Galway County Council had run out of funding for disability grants and mobility aid grants. When I questioned the director of services about that, he told me that by early May the council had administered more than 1,000 applications for this year alone. There are seven months of the year left to go. Where is that director of services going to get the money to fund these schemes? He told me there is a rolling amount of money. He gets a fixed sum of money but he is hoping some of the grants will not be carried out or will not have to be paid out until next year and that he will be able to take the money out of the budget for next year. He is already borrowing from next year to try to meet the demand this year. That type of financial arrangement is not sustainable. We need to ensure that the funding is increased so that the demand is met. The value of the grants needs to be increased to a level that will mean they will actually be relevant in today's market.

The staff of Galway County Council, which is the only local authority with which I deal constantly, are under extreme pressure in trying to deal with the volume that is coming in their door. There are delays in the application process, getting technicians to go out and do inspections and getting the processes approved. At the end of the day, it is the homeowners who are suffering. It is important to realise that the scheme is there to serve them. If an application submitted last September or October has still not been assessed, then there is something wrong with the running of the scheme. The problem is that the local authorities do not have the necessary resources. It is definitely the case that Galway County Council, the second largest local authority in the country, does not have the resources to deal with the volumes coming in its door. The volume is increasing year on year because we have an ageing population. There is a need to adapt the scheme to enable it to cope with the volume that is coming in.

As a former a county councillor and since I became a Deputy, I have seen the benefits the scheme gives to households. I have seen how people can live independently in their houses for longer and fulfil their life ambitions. Given the way the scheme is going right now, however, we will end up with the scheme failing, people losing interest and more people going into nursing homes, which is not what we want.

Deputy Matt Shanahan

I am happy to support this motion tabled by the Regional Group in respect of housing adaptation grants. It is no harm to run through the three grants that are available generally for community and housing adaptation. The housing aid for older people grant is essential to providing repairs to improve the condition of the homes of older persons, usually aged 66 or over, who are living in poor housing conditions, in order that they can continue to live in them.

The Government provides a mobility aids grant scheme. This is designed to address works in the home for people with mobility problems such as the purchase and installation of grab rails, access, shower access ramps, stairlifts, etc. Again, the scheme is primarily for older people but also for people with a disability.

The housing adaptation grant for older people, and people with a disability, is designed for people who need to make physical adaptations to their home to accommodate injury, disability, trauma and, often times, a post medical procedure. The grant can be requested to accommodate persons with sensory or intellectual disability.

As the Minister of State will know, these schemes are means tested. Applications may need to be corroborated by an occupational therapist who can judge the levels of mobility and individual assistance required. These grants are vital for many people in communities, particularly for people as they age.

The whole idea of these adaptation schemes is to ensure that people can remain in their homes as they get more infirm, and that they can continue to enjoy a quality of life in their communities. There is a significant social and economic dividend to the State in keeping people in their homes for as long as possible. They retain their family and community relationships for longer as they age. In general, people will also retain their mobility while they remain at home. Often times they have a wider circle of support in their community, which is what all of us want as we age. This assistance will be available to people as long as they remain in the community. Unfortunately, such assistance does not always translate when people go into managed accommodation or State-supported care.

It is a fact that many older houses in the country may require adaptation to accommodate the creation of bedrooms and bathrooms downstairs. Often times there is a need to make wheelchair accessible areas in homes, so there is a very strong needs for these grants.

At present the grants scheme is available up to a ceiling of €30,000 with 20% of that funding coming from the local authority and the remaining 80% to be provided by the Department. The local authority, through approved contractors, provides the scheme generally. It is up to it to see that the works are managed. They are responsible for assessing the claims and, where appropriate, instigating works. This is where we have now run into a pretty significant problem, as the Minister of State will know. There has been a very marked increase in the cost of construction nationally. As she is well aware, a lot of public sector procurement is not being responded to at the moment simply because contractors are not entering into fixed-price agreements on works. That is one part of the problem. The second part of the problem is that the ceilings of the money available are not adequate any more to deal with the adaptations that are required.

We know that people are living longer. We also know that simple adaptations can do so much in houses, particularly to prevent elderly people from suffering from trips and falls, which are the most common cause of trauma that is suffered by older aged groups. As a result, older people often require significant hospitalisation and rehabilitation.

Unfortunately, the increasing trend in ageing is reflected in the increased funding that has been directed by the Department over the last ten years. Indeed, the level of funding has increased from €43 million in 2014 up to just over €80 million last year. Therefore, funding has doubled in the timeframe and reflects where funding is needed.

The individual grant ceilings have not changed in 12 years so my group of colleagues and I ask the Government to look at this matter. The ceilings are not adequate to provide the adaptations that are required and there has been an increase in construction costs.

Representatives of disability groups have engaged with the Minister of State and the Department. They have suggested that the ceiling must be increased to €60,000. Although the schemes are means tested, there is still a significant number of applications to each local authority and an increasing number waiting ever longer to be dealt with.

As the Minister of State will also know, the local authority has the discretion to see what funding that it can provide. As Deputy Canney has already highlighted, many local authorities are looking at the pot and realise that they are running out of money fast so they will not be able to cover the cost of providing 60%, 70% or 80% of the grant applications coming in.

In my opinion the Government needs to take a very strong look at the situation from a cost-benefit perspective. The delay in providing grants and thereby adapting houses means that people have no option other than to look for residential home care setting. As I am sure the Minister of State is aware, the average cost of residential care in the country, depending on where one lives, ranges from between €55,000 and €75,000 per annum. Even where the fair deal scheme is being utilised there is still a significant cost on the Exchequer in support of this type of activity. I am sure that any cost-benefit analysis would detail to the Minister of State that it is far better that we spend the money on adapting houses, particularly local authority houses as that housing stock may be used for further clients as time moved on.

There is a significant problem, of which we are all aware, with construction costs. We have a significant problem in the funding envelope that has been provided. We have also a significant cost in terms of the local authorities being able to support grants adequately. Therefore, our motion calls on the Government to ensure that adaptation grants are linked to the cost of the specific works as a percentage of the overall cost, which would be a pragmatic approach. Also, grants must allow the discretion for people with disabilities to ensure that they meet the individual needs of the disabled persons to live independently in communities.

In conclusion, we aspire to live in an equitable society and for that we all aspire to ensure that the funding provisions are adequate to meet the needs of our most vulnerable. Clearly, they are not at present and we call on the Government to significantly review funding provisions.

Deputy Verona Murphy

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in support of this motion. I thank Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh and my colleague, Deputy Seán Canney, for putting this motion together.

I want to focus on a particular section of the motion, which I know will be repeated a number of times. The motion states: "the unprecedented increase in construction costs, rising costs of materials and the shortage of skilled labour in Ireland is putting the cost of these upgrades and essential works beyond the reach of most of the recipients of such grant assistance". Even the most partisan of Government supporters will surely recognise that there are major problems associated with the soaring costs of construction, upgrades and essential works. It is my view that many of the actions taken by successive Governments have been the catalyst for these problems to worsen. On the one hand, Government made it more difficult for people to access credit and almost too difficult in many cases. On the other hand, Government made it more difficult for builders to build houses. This was done through a dysfunctional planning system and imposing onerous conditions on builders. When all of the associated ingredients are added into the mix the result has been the creation of a serious mess.

Often when the discussion is about the mess in housing, we focus on the plight of first-time buyers. This motion allows us the opportunity to highlight the plight faced by many others who are caught up in the housing debacle. There are many people across the country who rely on grant assistance to upgrade or repair their homes. These are usually targeted supports to assist those who, for a variety of valid reasons, may not be able to fund such work with their own income.

The first part of our motion mentions a number of examples such as the housing aid for older people grant, the mobility aids grant, and the housing adaptation grant for people with a disability to enable people to live independently in their own homes for longer. One of the main aims of this motion is to get the Government to review the level of grant funding for these schemes to bring them into line with the pace of cost increases. These grants were originally designed with thresholds which allowed the homeowner a reasonable hope of being able to complete the necessary works. The cost of works has increased by so much now that in many cases the grants are ineffective in enabling the homeowner to proceed with the work. Also, because the level of own funding required means these works have become an unrealistic goal and out of the reach of many.

In many cases we have significant wait times for people to get grant approval in much of the country. However, I am glad to report that is not an issue in my constituency of Wexford because the section of Wexford County Council that does this work is very much on top of the issue. It seems that unacceptable waiting times have become the norm for customer services among Departments in recent years. The HSE has waiting lists so long that it does not know the actual number.

I wish to mention young Leo Dixon, who is a 9-year-old wheelchair user from County Wicklow. His application for a wheelchair sat on a desk for nine weeks before being dealt with. The passport service should be renamed to reflect the slow speed of its "express service". The local authority housing lists also make for grim reading. Finally, the queues last weekend in Dublin Airport are a further example of incompetence and lack of accountability in State or semi-State organisations.

Both the prohibitive costs and the length of waiting lists has many obvious consequences for those in need of housing supports. If the work does not get done in a timely fashion then this may result is more accidents in the home, more time in hospital, greater reliance on the already under pressure home care sector, and an earlier entry into nursing homes. All of these things are harmful to the person and their families but also place a higher burden on the resources of the State.

Reviewing thresholds and increasing the amounts available under the grant schemes could very well be the stitch in time that saves nine for so many people. As stated in the motion Ireland is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which places an onus on signatories to ensure the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community with choices equal to others and the opportunity to choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others and are not obliged to live in a particular living arrangement.

The other area of the motion I want to highlight is for the Government to allow discretion for people with disabilities to ensure that the grant meets the individual needs of the disabled person to live independently. Also, it is very important that a discretion in general be granted at the level of senior housing officer, director of services and senior staff officer at local level. All too often when dealing with State grants the criteria does not allow for the decision-makers to use their discretion. There are many hard-working skilled people working on the Government's behalf, dealing with grant applications. We need to adjust the system to allow these officials more leeway in certain circumstances to use their judgment to best meet the needs of the applicant. An example of where this discretion could have been exercised, but was not allowed under the legislation, was in respect of an elderly couple in my constituency. They are in their mid-80s. Last December their boiler packed up. When applying for a grant they were told that the work or repairs could not commence until an inspection took place. At the time, because of Covid-19, the earliest inspection date was six weeks' later. Clearly they could not wait as they had no heating in the house. Subsequently they did not qualify for the grant as the inspection took place post-works. The money had to be borrowed from the local credit union. This is not the aim of these grants. If we look at the discretion at that level it should cure ills such as this.

I am hopeful this will result in more people being able to remain and live in comfort and safety in their own homes and help achieve the greatest value for money possible. Overall, I believe the motion is brought about by the increase in costs and I hope it receives universal support across the House.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (Deputy Hildegarde Naughton)

I thank the Deputies for tabling this motion and for their valuable contributions. As set out in the programme for Government, Our Shared Future, the Government believes the State has a fundamental role in enabling older people and people with disabilities to remain living independently in their own homes. The opportunity to discuss and debate this very important issue this morning is welcome.

While the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has some concerns about some elements of the motion, for example, to ensure grants are linked to the cost of the specific works as a percentage of the costs, given the uncontrolled nature of the financial commitment, the Government is not opposing the motion as its aim is to support properly and rightly the housing adaptation grants for older people and people with disability. Therefore, I will provide an update to the Dáil on progress to date as well as plans to address the issues raised.

The suite of housing adaptation grants for older people and people with disability are for private home owners and are 80% funded by the Exchequer with a 20% contribution from the resources of the local authorities. There are three distinct grant types being delivered through local authorities: the housing adaptation grant for people with a disability scheme provides grants of up to €30,000 to assist people with a disability to have necessary adaptations, repairs or improvement works carried out to their homes; the housing aids for older people scheme provides grants of up to €8,000 to assist older people living in poor housing conditions to have the necessary repairs or improvements carried out; the mobility aids grant scheme is available to fast-track grants of up €6,000 to cover a basic suite of works to address the mobility problems of a member of a household. Demand for these grants has been consistently high since they were introduced in 2007. There is a programme for Government commitment to increase funding and make the grants more accessible.

In 2021 there were 10,283 grants delivered at a total cost of almost €71 million. More than €81 million is allocated for the grants in 2022. These figures include the 20% local authority contribution. Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland was launched in September 2021 and established a number of targets to increase the supply of private, social and affordable homes and increase overall affordability. In total 300,000 new homes are targeted by 2030 of which 90,000 will be social homes, 54,000 will be affordable purchase or cost rental and the remaining 166,000 or so will be private market housing. The plan promotes compact, sustainable urban growth and will be supported by funding of €4 billion per year. In particular the housing needs of older people are addressed in the plan, the objective of which is to ensure that older people will be afforded increased housing options to allow them to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible, or to access age-friendly housing. Furthermore it commits to ensuring that affordable, quality housing with an appropriate mix of housing design types provided within social housing, including universally designed units is available to everyone in Irish society including those with disabilities and older people.

Housing for All commits to increasing the housing options available to older people to facilitate ageing in place with dignity and independence, delivering an appropriate range of housing and related supports services in an integrated sustainable manner which will promote equality of opportunity, individual choice and independent living for people with a disability. In January 2022, as signalled in the Housing for All, the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027 was launched. The new strategy sets out a vision for the co-operation and collaboration of Departments, State agencies and others in delivering housing and the related supports for disabled people over the next five years. This new strategy will operate within the framework of Housing for All and places a greater emphasis on independent living and community inclusion. Implementation of the plan will be based on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Housing for All policy objective to make more efficient use of existing housing stock includes the development of a national policy on right-sizing and to explore options to support and incentivise right-sizing on a voluntary basis. Work is under way through the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to inform and progress the development of national policy on right-sizing this year.

There has also been increasing support for the adaptation of local authority homes with funding increasing year on year to help meet the needs of local authority tenants. Funding under the disabled persons grant scheme has increased from a level of more than €15 million in 2019 to almost €24 million in 2021 for which local authorities were approved funding for all works that they advised would be completed that year. This gave local authorities an opportunity to clear backlogs and carry out more costly works such as extensions. For 2022 allocations have been in excess of €23 million which is considered sufficient to meet the demands of all local authorities with a further contingency available to address any shortfall in commitments already in place or urgent cases which may arise.

In regard to the retrofitting scheme the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has in 2022 a total of €267 million allocated for the SEAI residential and community schemes this year. This is the highest ever allocation for the schemes. The investment will support almost 27,000 home energy upgrades, including more than 8,600 home upgrades to a building energy rating, BER, of B2 which is a near doubling of B2 output over 2021. Since the launch of the new supports in February this year demand for the SEAI retrofit schemes has been exceptionally high with a very significant increase in the number of applications to date, when compared with the same period in 2021. This strong pipeline of projects is expected to translate into delivery in the months to come.

I have outlined a flavour of the intensive work under way and planned, which will make an extraordinary difference to the lives both of older and disabled people, in particular the review under way on the suite of adaptation grants for older people and people with disability. The points raised in the motion before us today are welcome. This is a welcome contribution in addressing some of the issues affecting grant applicants. I believe this debate today will prove invaluable to that review. Careful consideration will be given to the views expressed here today, as part of that review.

Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick

A housing adaptation grant is for older people and people with disability. It is available from the local authorities for people who need to make changes to their homes to make them more suitable for those with a physical, sensory or intellectual disability or mental health difficulties.

Not a day passes when there is not a queue in my office of people looking for help to fill in the application form to see what is available. The biggest problem we have at the moment is the increase in construction costs and materials and the shortage of skills and labour is putting the cost of these upgrades and essential works beyond reach of most of the recipients of the grants’ approval. It is very hard at the moment to get value for money. As the Minister of State herself said, it is nearly impossible to get people to give a hand even for small jobs.

Grants of up to €30,000 were available to assist people with a disability in carrying out necessary work to make a house more suitable for their needs. The grant is means-tested and an assessment needs to be carried out by an occupational therapist. The issue is value-for-money but trying to get an occupational therapist out to examine many of these houses in my local authority of County Louth is nearly impossible.

There are also significant waiting times for people getting grant approval and assistance is certainly needed for the retention of local authority homes to cater for the needs of older tenants, for those with a disability and for those people living in overcrowded conditions in local authority properties. The problem with the local authority properties is that it is all old stock and a very significant amount of work needs to be done on them.

As one of my colleagues said earlier, Ireland is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which places an onus on the signatories to ensure the equal right of all people with disabilities: “to live in the community, with choices equal to others” and “to have the opportunity to choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others [who] are not obliged to live in a particular living arrangement.”

The amount of money available for grants in 2022 is €81.25 million. That is made up of €65 million from Exchequer funding and €16.25 million from local authorities. That, to me, seems like a great amount of money but every time we contact our local authorities the first thing they say to me is that they have no money. Some €81 million seems a great deal of money to share among local authorities but I am pleading with the Minister of State for more money and I keep mentioning the phrase value-for-money.

The Disability Federation of Ireland says that the maximum amount payable has not changed in 12 years. There have been calls for the maximum level to be increased to €60,000. The maximum amount of yearly income up to €30,000 is eligible for 95% of the cost and the grant is equal to €30,000. Between an income of €30,000 to €35,000, 85% of the grant is payable, which is €25,000. An income of €35,000 to €40,000 gives an eligibility of 75% of the cost, which is €22,500. Some €40,000 to €50,000 of an income gives an eligibility of 50% of the cost which is €15,000 and an income of €50,000 to €60,000 gives an eligibility of 30% of the grant payment which is €9,000.

We in the Regional Group of Deputies are calling on the Government to ensure that grants are linked to the costs of the specific works as a percentage of costs and to allow discretion for people with disabilities to ensure that the grants meet the individual needs of the disabled person to live independently. We are also asking that the Government allocate additional resources to local authorities to manage these schemes, to provide the investment required for local authority housing stock and to increase the budget allocation to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Government should also ensure that the grant scheme can meet the demand and reflect the increase in construction costs. The upper limit grants should reflect the increase in the cost of construction. The development of cluster bungalow housing should be incentivised with closer services for older people. There should also be a review of the recently announced but yet unavailable retrofitting grants to reflect the significant rise in construction costs.

As I have said to the Minister of State, these schemes are great. The people who call to my constituency office who have been living in these houses for 30 to 40 years, or whatever it is, just do not have any money. They are looking for a little bit of help. The difference created by even replacing the windows, the doors or of putting a heating system in, is second to none. The €81 million that has been allocated seems like a great deal of money but it is divided between local authorities. I am only talking about a small constituency in my area of Louth and Dundalk. What happens is that when one person sees what is available, they tell somebody else and all of a sudden everybody is coming in looking for it. But these are pensioners, most of whom have a yearly income of less than €30,000, and they are really looking for help. We in the Regional Group sat down, studied and have worked very hard in putting everything together and most of the incentives we are looking for are all down to common sense. I hope the Minister of State will engage with our good selves and other Deputies and I hope we will get support on this.

I ask the Minister to look at the money.

Deputy Seán Canney

I want to return to a few things mentioned by the Minister of State. We accept that increases have been given for grants but it is important to say that the increases do not reflect the increases in the costs.

Second, the grant for housing adaptation is a maximum of €30,000. I have cases in my constituency where people have acquired injuries, whether they had an accident, a brain haemorrhage or tumour, and they are now confined to a wheelchair. They are trying to adapt their house to make it fit for independent living and €30,000 will not cut mustard in that situation. People have to borrow money in order to try to live in their own houses and live independently. We need to build discretion into the scheme at director of service level or at a higher engineering level within the local authorities so that in a case where the costs are much higher and where the works would ensure that a person could live independently in his or her house, that that discretion is left with the local authority to make a call on. It is very important that we have that flexibility. A €30,000 cap is very stringent.

Likewise, with housing aid for older people capped at €8,000 at the moment, it is important to recognise that to replace windows, which are probably single-glazed teak windows which are leaking air and heat by the new time, or the back door and front door of a house, there will be very little change from €8,000. That is the key message we are giving here.

Likewise, €3,000 for the mobility aid grants is a very small amount of money. It is important that is put into the equation of the scheme. This scheme does not need to be turned upside down. The basis and the fundamentals of it are right but we need to ensure that it is fit-for-purpose.

Similarly, if one takes the local authority housing stock where we have people with disabilities living in them, the local authorities are very slow to make the necessary adjustments be it, for example, an extension with a ground floor en suite bedroom to allow a child or person to sleep in his or her own house. I know of people who are sleeping on the couch in their sitting rooms because they cannot access upstairs and are waiting.

One particular young woman who is now entering third level education is waiting for a house extension so that she can have an en suite bedroom downstairs. This is a basic requirement and has not happened. Now, after about seven years of waiting, of surveys and of reports, including occupational therapist, OT, reports, pointing to what should be done, the talk now is of taking the entire family out of that house and relocating them into a bungalow. It is a disgrace that we have that kind of attitude at this time.

Basically, the local authorities’ resources are not adequate to meet the increase in demand. This increase is coming because we have an ageing population. The entire programme for Government and policies we make are all about keeping people in their homes for longer. This scheme can and has been helping people to do that but we need to ensure that we do not let it fall by the wayside and become what I would call dysfunctional because we are not keeping pace with the changes that are happening in society and to our ageing population, together with the increases that are happening in the cost of doing the works.

We also need to ensure that we deal with this in a very humane way. We are doing that in the local authorities and I know the stress that the local authority staff are under in trying to cope with the onslaught or avalanche of applications which are coming in. The headline in the local newspapers last week that Galway County Council had run out of funding sent a shockwave through many people who had applications on the system and who do not know if they are going to get money through the grants to do this work.

It is important that we keep up the momentum and make sure this scheme remains fit for purpose.

Acting Chairman (Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan)

We move to Sinn Féin. I call Deputy Martin Browne, who is sharing time with colleagues.

Deputy Martin Browne

Much like the outdatedness of the housing assistance payment, which has no bearing on current rental costs, the upper limit on the housing adaptation grant has remained the same for 13 years. It no longer has any bearing on the actual costs that many people in my constituency of Tipperary face. The annual rate of construction inflation hit 13.4% from January to December 2021. In Tipperary, this has led to some people, who have been waiting years since applying, finding they now have to give it up because they cannot afford the extent of the contribution they have to pay. For someone who needs a downstairs bedroom and bathroom, €30,000 does not cover it any more. Those people are expected to come up with the remainder, which nowadays can run to tens of thousands of euro. These are the people with least. Those additional costs have also become so high that builders who have frequently tried to be as accommodating as possible have reached the limit of their flexibility.

These are the people who I and my Sinn Féin colleagues hear from. They are left with no option but to give up on being able to adapt their homes to suit their needs. They are the people who have gone through the long application and approval process and are finally in a position to get work done. There are many others who continue to wait until their condition deteriorates, their mobility worsens and prices skyrocket. They are confining themselves to certain rooms and now have limited freedom, even within their own home. They are ill, they are cold and they are uncomfortable, and the longer they wait, the less likely the grant will go as far as it should.

This is where the difference between priority 1 and 2 begins to lose distinction. For years, Sinn Féin has been calling for increased grant funding in alternative budgets but the Minister has delayed and stalled and now finds himself in a situation where costs are spiralling and people's quality of life is failing. It has been said that the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities demands access for those living in situations of poverty to assistance from the state with disabilities-related expenses. What measures does the Minister intend to bring forward to do right by the people who are most in need? If he would prefer to talk in purely monetary terms rather than address people's realities, then let me put it this way. The Minister can quote figures all day long but if he was in touch with the local authorities, they will tell him it is not enough to deal with the work that has to be done. Some €81 million is a lot of money but it is not even enough to clear priority 1 cases and everyone knows there is a backlog with that too. Would the Minister not prefer to have the financial savings that come with adapting a person’s home rather than the cost involved in leaving people with no alternative but to go into residential care?

On a final point, the application process is drawn out and beset with delays, and this needs to be addressed. The odds are stacked against those in need. We need to enable local authorities to meet the costs involved, address inflation and ensure that applications can be processed in a timely manner.

Deputy Claire Kerrane

I welcome this motion and thank the Regional Group for bringing it forward. It is an important debate to have in the House. Of course, we know the greatest challenge with these grants is the simple fact there is not enough funding for our local authorities to meet demand. Galway County Council is a prime example. Before the end of the first quarter of this year, it had over 1,000 applications, with some being progressed, some approved and some new applications that it was dealing with. We were told in March of this year that it was already significantly oversubscribed for the year in regard to applications received. I do not think it even had the funding from the Government at that point in time, which clearly shows this scheme and these grants are in demand but the funding is just not there to meet that demand.

There are a number of consequences. I am dealing with the case of an amputee who has been approved for an extension, which is welcome, but because construction costs have increased so much, he is not able to put up the amount required of him. The element of the motion in regard to discretion is very important and when it comes to persons with a disability in particular, the income thresholds are outdated. I know of a couple who are working and who need to put an extension on a house. The gentleman is a garda and the over-€60,000 rule meant they could not get anything in regard to building that extension for their child. This made things extremely difficult and they have not been able to progress. Those limits and income thresholds, as stated in the motion, are very important and need to be looked at.

There is a difference in the grant payable depending on when the house was built, and it can be a big difference for a person with an income of €40,000 to €50,000. If the house has been built for more than 12 months, people will get a payment of €15,000, and if it has been built for less than 12 months, the payment is €7,250. I am not sure why that difference exists. If something happens or if there is an accident for somebody in the house, I do not see why that link with when the house was built needs to be there and it causes difficulties.

The grants that are available are very important. The point in the motion in regard to incentivising the development of cluster bungalow housing close to services is also important, particularly for those who are considering downsizing. I had a couple in my office just two weeks ago who have a four-bedroom, privately owned house and it is just the two of them now and they really want to downsize. However, they are not in a position to do so because the houses simply are not there. That downsizing element is very important to allow people to live in clusters. It is a nice way for older people to live, where they are near the shops, the church and other services.

This is a very important motion and it is welcome we are having this debate this morning. There are steps that can be taken, particularly around discretion, to make these grants more accessible to people who need them.

Deputy Chris Andrews

I acknowledge the motion and congratulate the Regional Group. These grants have a huge impact on the quality of life of many older people and individuals with disabilities. These grants are important in keeping people at home. It gives them a chance to live independently and it also keeps the pressure off the hospitals. It is a win-win for everybody. We only have to imagine what the hospitals would be like if it was not for this grant.

The number of people over the age of 65 is expected to reach 1.4 million by 2040, which will work out at approximately 23% of the population, whereas over-65s are currently 13.5% to 14% of the population. Therefore, these grants are going to be increasingly important for individuals but also for families and, again, to keep the pressure off the hospitals.

For many who contact me the process is challenging. Supports are needed for people who are struggling to make an application. In the current environment, costs are flying up and surpassing the grant, and individuals who apply cannot afford to do the work when they go to get it done. Funding is a huge issue. As was said previously, this is a very good scheme and it does not need to be overhauled, but it certainly needs to be funded and resourced, and supports need to be put in place for people who are struggling with the application process. If an older person gets a grant and they then have to carry out particular work, the quoted cost is often outdated by the time the work starts.

Delays are significant and that is often because, when someone applies, it comes back to needing more support and resources within the local authorities to process the applications. If someone applies and makes a mistake, as with the passports, they go back to the start of the queue whereas somebody in Dublin City Council should contact them to say they have left out A, B or C and they need to correct that. However, as it stands, the process can take months. The person will contact me or other Deputies, and we then contact the council, which says the person has not filled in the form properly, and it is then updated. That should not happen. The councils need to be more proactive and structures need to be put in place to ensure there are not such delays.

Deputy Pa Daly

I thank the Regional Group for bringing forward this important motion. I want to raise a particular issue in regard to ceiling hoists being excluded from the housing adaptation grant. This was a decision taken a number of years ago, which directed the local authorities to change their policy in order that ceiling track hoists are no longer funded by the housing adaptation grant. I am not sure what the thinking is within the Department. Is it because of insurance or for some other reason? I am not sure, although we have been asking for a number of years.

The grant aid ceased two years ago. A decision was made not to provide grants for these devices that require trained operators. It was to be taken up by the HSE but there is still no decision. I have raised this through parliamentary questions. A process of negotiation is ongoing as far as I understand. The Minister of State with responsibility for heritage responded to a recent parliamentary question stating a solution will be reached as soon as possible.

In April last year this was raised by the O'Mahony family from Killarney. Last July they were told a decision would be made. They were told the same thing in September and March. They were told a consultation process is happening. I do not care who sorts it out so long as someone grasps the nettle and deals with it. I do not care whether it is someone from the Department dealing with health, housing, local government or disability. Whoever it is should make the decision because it is very important for the O'Mahony family. Their daughter Alexis has cerebral palsy quadriplegia with a high risk of aspiration. She is completely dependent on her family. She requires constant repositioning for washing to prevent injury. She requires two people to lift her, 24-hour care, regular repositioning and movement for her hygiene care. Her parents care for her. When her father is not present due to travelling for work it is very difficult for her mother to do this job. There is a risk of serious injury to Alexis. She has been waiting for the whole of the past year for a decision to be made so that she can get a grant for housing. I ask the Minister to make an exception and change the rule and do something about this so that her life can be made a little bit easier.

Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

This is an area that affects the lives of countless families. I acknowledge that very often many local authority staff do the best they can to try to facilitate and support people in very challenging circumstances. With regard to rules, procedures and budgets there are obstacles to ensuring that people are properly supported. Some of them have been identified. One of the biggest issues I come across is timescales, given the bureaucracy that can sometimes go with trying to ensure an adaptation happens. This has been exacerbated in recent times because of the increase in the cost of building supplies and the fact that quotes expire quite quickly.

Sometimes occupational therapists will recommend something of a very high order. They try to imagine the absolute maximum solution. When this goes to the local authorities they ask whether all of it is entirely necessary. I am not sure whether it is the local authority or the occupational therapist who is to blame. Both are trying to do their best. It can create a difficulty. Then we end up with it going back and forth. Occupational therapists are reluctant to revise down the initial recommendation because they believe it to be clinically appropriate and necessary. This is an issue. Perhaps more direct communication between local authorities and occupational therapists might help. Sometimes there can be a reluctance to get into this type of direct dialogue.

Another measure that could resolve some of the issues is a more dynamic internal transfer and mutual transfer system. Instead of a stair lift a solution could be provided through a transfer to swap families in a bungalow and an upstairs two-bedroom flat. It might not be the full solution but it could be part of the solution to help. Some local authorities have more dynamic options whereby people can declare an interest in a mutual transfer and people can be matched up. Other local authorities could benefit from following this.

I support the point made by Deputy Daly on the hoist. It is very important that it is addressed. These adaptations make a huge impact to the lives of elderly and vulnerable people. In their absence the impact on the quality of life can be enormous. They usually happen eventually but it can take two years with significant hardship in the meantime. We do need to improve the systems.

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú

We have all been inundated in our constituency offices by people looking for adaptation grants and those on the waiting lists. I spoke to the council this week. Generally there has been a two-year backlog. It has probably reduced to a year and a half. In fairness the absolute majority of people on the lists are top priority and this is the reality. We all know we are dealing with spiralling prices and costs. There are supply chain issues that can create difficulties even where builders are on site. This will create wider difficulties with housing and even the targets that have been set. We are always constrained by the lack of housing, whether this is social housing or the wider housing supply.

I want to deal with the issue of severe disability. I have dealt with a number of cases but I am thinking of one specifically that related to a family offered a housing adaptation grant. I have spoken to the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, about this. I believe she has been in contact with the office of the Minister on the issue to try to work out a solution. These people have been offered €30,000 and more to put in a hoist. The case involves a teenager who is severely disabled and getting older and bigger. This is causing increasing logistical issues for the family. I hope we can find a roadmap for the people in this case for more money to be released. If the State did not have the parents to look after this child and was solely responsible for the care it would involve a huge amount of money. It would also be societally wrong and all that goes with it.

In some cases we deal with houses that are not necessarily suited to these changes. We need a wider supply of a universal design. Beyond this there may be a wider need for the HSE to play a part. There may be a need for very specific funding. On some level an awful lot of these issues are thrown on the local authorities. There needs to be a wider solution. We need to look at how we do this.

Deputy Mairéad Farrell

Gabhaim buíochas leis an nGrúpa Réigiúnach as an rún seo a chur as comhair na Dála. It is very welcome we are having this discussion because we all know the benefit of these grants. I have to say in particular that I often come across the big difference the housing aid for older people grant makes in people's lives. In many cases it involves small simple things that need to be done but they make a massive difference to those people who are getting older. They need small little jobs done to be able to access their homes better. We know it is getting more difficult to get contractors to take on these very small jobs. This is one issue I have come across quite regularly in my clinics. Another issue, as has been said already, is with regard to the many requests being made but no availability in certain councils, such as Galway County Council, to do them.

Tá sé tábhachtach go bhfuil seo á phlé againn mar tuigimid cé chomh tábhachtach is atá na deontais seo. Tá brú aisteach ar chomhairlí áirithe agus tá a fhios agam go bhfuil brú ollmhór ar Chomhairle Chontae na Gaillimhe, i mo Dháilcheantar, mar gheall ar na deontais a rinne sí leis seo agus tá brú uirthi mar gheall nach bhfuil dóthain airgid aici ar aon chuma. Tuigimid cé chomh tábhachtach is a bhfuil na deontais seo do na hathruithe beaga go bhféadfaí a dhéanamh i dtithe. Go háirithe táim ag smaoineamh ar na daoine atá níos sine. Ní theastaíonn uathu ach athrú beag bídeach agus déanann sin difríocht ollmhór. Tá sé go maith go bhfuil seo á phlé inniu ach caithimid a chinntiú go bhfuil na hacmhainní ar fad ag na comhairlí contae chun dul i ngleic leis seo.

Deputy Paul Donnelly

I thank the Regional Group for tabling the motion. We all recognise this is an extremely important grant to help older people and people with disabilities to remain in their own homes and ensure they have a better quality of life. I want to raise a number of issues which other speakers have already mentioned, particularly with regard to the maximum limit. This is way too low given the situation in the industry at present. Costs are spiralling through the roof. It is now 12 years since there has been an increase. This needs to be addressed.

I have a constituent who is in receipt of a disability payment. She will not work again. She owns her own home. She has applied for the housing adaptation grant and the grant for older people with disabilities. She is under 66 years of age but the criteria state there are exceptions for those aged under 66 who cite hardship. The person has been refused on the basis that she is not 66 years of age.

Part of the council's response was that hardship cases can be considered where the person is under the age of 66 and regard given to the condition of the property to bring it up to standard to ensure that older persons can remain living in their home and do not have to transfer to a care centre. Unfortunately, the council does not specify what the lower end of the age under 66 is for hardship cases. It does not clearly define what it means by "hardship". It is difficult for people to appeal when they do not know what they are appealing against, they do not know what the age limit is, and they do not know what the definition of "hardship" is. I would appreciate if we could connect and maybe do something for this person.

Deputy Ged Nash

I thank the Regional Group for tabling this motion. It is an important debate and I am glad that we are having it. All of us, especially those who served on local authorities, are intimately familiar with the programme and the special housing adaptation grant scheme. It is a good, effective scheme. It was far-sighted of the Minister and local authorities that first introduced it. It is clear that issues face the scheme and its utility with the limits provided for. A sum of €30,000 will not get anyone far these days. The Minister will be able to acknowledge that. There is a strong argument in the motion that the level of the grant should reflect a percentage of the cost rather than being a set cash amount. I hope the Minister will reflect on that and consider the views that previous speakers have no doubt articulated about the cost. As I said, €30,000 will not get much these days, in a period of ever-rising and escalating inflation in construction costs. The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland reported in April that construction cost inflation was at 38%, which is very significant. We know the prices of building materials are going up and that there are labour shortages in the construction sector.

The Minister will be only too familiar with the challenges that we have in meeting his targets in Housing for All and the retrofitting targets, given the limited throughput of apprentices in the construction sector. We need to focus on it. It should be acknowledged, and I have no doubt that it has been acknowledged, by both Government representatives and Opposition Members that the amount the Department has allocated to this grant scheme has increased each year since 2014, which is very welcome. It is €81.25 million for this year, which is an 8% increase on last year, which is welcome. A contribution has to be made by local authorities, which are cash-strapped at the moment.

There is a strong argument for the HSE to make a contribution, especially for those who have health issues. There are underspends in the HSE capital budget. The Minister might tap his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, on the shoulder, and ask if he will make a contribution to the more effective running of this scheme. We know, as public representatives, that hardly a week passes where we do not make a representation for somebody who is seeking to have works done under the housing adaptation grant scheme. The local authorities in my constituency, Louth County Council and Meath County Council, prioritise applications into categories 1, 2 and 3, as local authorities have to. Given the nature of these things, it is sometimes the case that by the time a grant is approved and prices have been obtained, people may be in difficult circumstances or may have passed on. That is no reflection on local authorities. The process then has to start all over again and somebody else will benefit from that resource. There is a strong argument for the HSE to consider contributing to the scheme, given the challenges that the scheme faces. It can never properly meet the full demand.

The ultimate aim of the scheme is to keep people in their homes for as long as possible in a comfortable way and dignified fashion. We know the expense for families and the State and the lack of independence that people have when they go into a nursing home or full-time residential care. It is important that we resource people to stay in the comfort of their own home, where everybody wants to be for as long as they can, with access to the kinds of services that they require. We have a perfect storm at the moment. There are big backlogs in local authorities with the housing adaptation grant scheme. We also have the HSE signing off on care packages when it cannot get the personnel to fulfil those packages. We have real problems. This requires a multi-departmental and cross-Government approach.

I thank the Regional Group for tabling this motion. It is an important debate that goes under the radar far too often. The principle of the scheme is good and it works effectively, but like all schemes of this nature, it needs to be kept under constant review, and I argue again for more of a cross-Government approach to how these schemes are resourced to meet their full potential and all of the needs.

Deputy Holly Cairns

I thank the Regional Group for the opportunity to discuss the importance of the housing aid for older persons grant, the mobility aid grant, and the housing adaptation grant for people with disabilities. The Social Democrats fully support the motion. Last week, the Irish Examiner reported on the case of a family with a child with spina bifida who had to raise €50,000 and get a credit union loan of €30,000 to pay for essential renovations to their home despite availing of the housing adaptation grant scheme. This case, highlighted by the Jack and Jill Foundation, illustrates the many issues with the adaptation grant. Crucially, it highlights how the scheme does not meet the needs of families and children with significant disabilities. The income threshold is low, which leaves many middle-income families with little or no support. It also calls for the application process and the granting of funds to be made much easier and more accessible for parent carers. This case and the insights from the Jack and Jill Foundation are not isolated.

In theory, the housing aid for older persons and the housing adaptation grant are exactly the type of support needed to help people to live in their own homes. However, in practice, the schemes need more funding, the grants are inadequate for the works required, the system is too bureaucratic and there are major delays for local authority housing. Speaking at the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, representatives of Disabled Women Ireland outlined the considerable issues with the current adaptation grant. They described the horrific and restrictive application process and the fact that the grants are generally drawn down after the capital outlay and stated:

Even if people fulfil the criteria, this system disadvantages the people who need it the most and who do not have any money or any savings to pay upfront for the accessibility that they need. If a person does qualify, he or she is limited by what he or she can afford right that minute and the person is not able to get what is needed, because of the draw-down afterwards system.

The current system, in effect, excludes and disempowers disabled people and others. It needs to be reformed. When someone qualifies, the money should be made available upfront. Alone, which supports more than 24,000 older people, has pointed out that the current annual funding of the adaptation grant would be required to assist just older people. It also points out that while the grant covers 95% of the work, many elderly people on low incomes find it extremely difficult to even pay the 5%, with the extensive work that is required. Representatives of the Irish Thalidomide Association have highlighted how the people who need support can often feel disregarded and voiceless in the system. Applications and decisions need to respect lived experience and recognise that disabled people and others are the experts in what they require.

There are issues where assessments are made on a household basis and do not consider individuals' autonomy. The Joint Committee on Disability Matters recommended that a mechanism must be included in the housing adaptation grant process where individuals choosing to live with families can access the grant as an individual without the rest of the household's income being included as part of the means test. This will support individuals to live independent lives in housing that is appropriate to their needs. A lack of access to adaptation grants also contributes to disabled people being unable to access appropriate housing. People must wait for lengthy periods and either live in unsuitable accommodation, remain in a hospital or go into a nursing home while waiting for housing adaptation. Any measure that can help disabled people needs to be accelerated. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has noted that people with disabilities are more than 1.6 times more likely to live in poor conditions and they are over-represented in the homeless population, with more than one in four homeless people being disabled.

The Ombudsman also highlighted that his office had received complaints about access to the housing adaptation grants available from local authorities and that the lack of proper support is contributing to keeping people in congregated settings, especially the large number of individuals under 65 years of age who are still in nursing homes because the State is not providing suitable housing.

This also highlights the importance of universal design. The Joint Committee on Disability Matters strongly advocates that the principles of universal design are vital to meaningfully remove barriers and achieve inclusion. This approach ensures that products, services and environments are made accessible from the planning stage. When conducted in conjunction with persons with disabilities and others affected, homes and buildings can be future-proofed by using designs to meet current and potential needs. Current building regulations do not require full accessibility. This is not only exclusion; it is short-sighted. The same accessible feature for mobility aids also helps young families with buggies. All new housing should be designed with adaptivity in mind. These are proactive measures that can be taken now to alleviate the problems individuals are experiencing.

Ultimately, these grants relate to the additional cost of having a disability. The Department of Social Protection's report, The Cost of Disability in Ireland, revealed that people with disabilities face extra costs of up to €12,300 annually on transport, fuel, equipment, aids, medical expenses, etc. We all know it is far more than that in many cases. Unless these and other supports are tailored to adequately recognise these costs, inequalities will continue and even get worse. Ireland has one of the highest rates of poverty and social exclusion for people with disabilities in the EU.

Accessible homes would keep people in their communities and enable others to move to independent living. Better mobility aid grants can help people leave the house, socialise and gain employment. These schemes are some of the most basic supports necessary to enable many different groups to live with dignity and to participate in society. It is their right. The Government must face up to its responsibility.

This issue cuts across all of society, from older people to families with children with disabilities, people with disabilities who are living independently and thalidomide survivors. In principle, it is exactly the type of support individuals and families need to facilitate independent living and keeping people in their homes. In practice, however, the system is complex, insufficient and exclusionary. Older people, those with disabilities and children with complex needs all have the right to appropriate supports. Schemes have to be designed properly. There needs to be sufficient discretion to allow people make the best choices for themselves and their families, the application process needs to be radically overhauled and applications need to be processed so much quicker.

Deputy Paul Murphy

I welcome and support the motion. As with pretty much every other public service in this country, there is a disgraceful lack of timely access to adequate home adaptation grants for older people and those with disabilities. As has been stated repeatedly, there are thousands of people in dire need of immediate home adaptations who have been waiting months, and even years, to have their applications processed. This is a misery for people. I deal with individuals who absolutely need these adaptations. They are unable to get them and are unable to live comfortably in their own homes as a result.. When they have their applications processed, finding a contractor is often impossible. What grants are available for them are too little and too late.

We can see already the same story repeating itself in terms of the Government's retrofitting scheme. It is the same sort of approach and it results in the same sort of problems - onerous inefficient lengthy means-tested grant applications and then a total reliance on outsourcing to an already overloaded understaffed private sector. This means that in the sphere of retrofitting, meeting any targets for emissions reductions will be next to impossible.

What lies beneath this? Why does this happen in what is the fifth richest country in the world on the basis of GDP per capita? What are the root causes and what are the solutions? One obvious cause is the chronic underfunding of local authorities to carry out this work. When Government funding for a service is inadequate, it leads to a rationing of that service by State agencies in response. In other countries, that might happen only during wartime when there are genuine shortages and they must engage in rationing. In the neoliberal capitalist Ireland of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, with a Government supported by many of the Independents who signed this motion, wartime rationing is effectively a permanent fact of life. Rationing in response to an artificial shortage is what is happening with housing adaptation grants, just as it is happening with healthcare, public housing, third level education and all the other essential services that we should have universal access to as a human right.

The Government now has two favourite methods of rationing. The first is the never-ending waiting list whereby thousands of people are forced to wait for months and years for vital public services in the hope that they either die first or give up and go private. These are two long-established and proven ways for the HSE to reduce waiting lists. The second is means testing to thin out the queue of people deemed eligible for a public service. It is a bit like going down a queue and saying to every second or third person that he or she is out of the queue. Providing inadequate grants does the same in a slightly different way by also rationing access according to income. There is not much point in applying for a grant one knows will not cover one's adaptation costs even if one eventually gets it.

The other side of the problem is outsourcing what should be public services to the private sector. In the case of housing adaptation grants, this means that the private sector sets the price based on what level of profit it wants to make. It happens at every single stage of the chain, from construction components down to contractors, so that a hefty and ever-increasing chunk of State grants meant to provide people with what they need to be able to live comfortably in their homes is swallowed up by profits.

Of course, the other way construction bosses make profits is by underpaying their workers and subjecting them to precarious unreliable working conditions. A few weeks ago, we were subjected to construction industry bosses claiming in The Irish Times that the skills shortage was due to "an awful lot of young people that don’t like getting out of the bed for seven o’clock in the morning". There was nothing about the terrible working conditions in the sector and nothing about the bogus self-employment, the rates of barely over €7 a hour for many apprentices, and a lack of sick pay and holiday pay. There was no mention by the notoriously bad employer, J.J. Rhatigan, interviewed for the article, that the company was previously found to be paying workers less than €5 an hour to work on Government-funded contracts. If the Government was really serious about providing access to housing adaptations and housing generally for all who need it, then it would come down on the construction industry like the proverbial ton of bricks and enforce existing labour laws to end bogus self-employment. Instead, it is more concerned about funnelling money to the developers. More importantly, it would legislate for the right to trade union recognition and collective bargaining in order that workers could fight for better pay and conditions and to resolve labour shortages. The Government would also adequately fund local authorities to carry out these works with direct labour, set up a State construction company, finance a significant expansion in the number of apprenticeships and ensure that apprentices are paid well above the pittance they are currently being offered.

I will quote from a recently reply I received from South Dublin County Council. I will not go into the details and I will not name the person involved. This is someone who is a council tenant looking for adaptation that they absolutely need on foot of their disability. On the final line it is stated that, unfortunately, what is proposed is not feasible, that it would be cost prohibitive and that, therefore, the request cannot be facilitated. Normally, it gets kicked down the road in the hope that it goes away, but this time it is bluntly stated that the council will not do what is necessary for this person because it does not have the money for it. This is evidence of the underfunding of local authorities.

Of course, the Government and the right-wing Independents who back it will do none of the things to which I refer because they are committed to a capitalist model of public service rationing and are deeply embedded in the pocket of the construction industry. Older people and those with disabilities deserve better.

Deputy Mick Barry

On housing adaptation grants, 13% of the people who live in County Cork have at least one disability. This is an important issue, nationally and locally. Last year, 228 households in Cork city were on the local authority's waiting list for adaptations to private houses.

Of those households, 142 were of people with disabilities, 44 were of people with mobility issues and 42 were of elderly people. I am concerned that the increase in the grant that the council received will be wiped out, or more than wiped out, by construction inflation. The upper limit of the grant needs to be increased. If councils had their own building units in order that the work could be done on a public basis, at good quality and not-for-profit rates, it would be a big improvement.

On housing and disability, some people with disabilities are still being asked to bid on the choice-based letting system for social housing. If they refuse, they lose their place on the list for a year. That is a very tough policy overall but it is particularly unfair on people with disabilities. The council might say that it knows their needs and is only making offers that tally with those needs, but how can a council official say that? Surely it is the person with the disability who must have the final say. That rule should change for people with disabilities. It is not fair.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I thank the Regional Group for giving us the opportunity to talk about this important matter. Housing adaptation grant aid for the elderly and mobility aids grants is the most important part of the housing programme in Kerry County Council. We have a very active group of people working in that department. They are doing great work for people who need adaptations and little things to make their houses more acceptable to live in and to ensure that they stay in their homes longer. I must mention people like Joanne, Josephine and Steffi. They are such great girls. I also mention Donal O'Regan and all the other men and women who are working in that department in Kerry County Council and who are doing great work. The Minister has to realise, however, that the cost of materials and labour has gone through the roof and that the grants are not meeting the cost of the jobs that need to be done. There has not been an increase for many years. We need such an increase now.

If an extension is required, there does not seem to be any money to do that. There might be enough for one or two in the whole country each year. Take the example of a farmer's house that has fallen into complete disrepair and cannot be refurbished. I have asked the Minister several times to give funding to the local authorities in order that they can get a demountable home - a mobile home - and finish their days on the farm where they have been all their lives.

Deputy Michael Collins

I thank the Regional Group for the opportunity to discuss this extremely important issue. I was doing clinics from Castletownbere right across to Kinsale last weekend. I do not know how many of these forms I filled out in respect of housing aid for the elderly, the mobility grant aid or those with disabilities. The issue is that the funding is no longer meeting the requirement. It is well out of date. Even if we only look at housing aid for the elderly, people get €8,000 to do a roof but you would not get a roof done for less than €20,000 now. That is a major issue for some.

For people with disabilities, the home adaptation grant is extremely important. There needs to be full grant aid in order that people who have serious disabilities can at least have the comfort of knowing that if they have to put an extension on to a home or adapt it, they will not have the burden or worry of looking for a loan. I am presented with this regularly. I thank the staff of Cork County Council in Clonakilty and Mallow and all those dealing with council grants for the elderly and with mobility grants. Their work is second to none but, ultimately, their hands are tied because they are only able to give what is there to give. Then they find that people cannot carry out the necessary works. Some people end up in community hospitals or nursing homes because they cannot adapt their homes. It is a no-win situation and it makes matters worse. We are talking about the adaptation grants, but the grants for the elderly need to be looked at too. Prices have gone out of the control. People are applying for the grant but the grant goes near nowhere near covering the prices they are being quoted.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae

When speaking to the Minister, I feel as if we are speaking to someone who has an understanding of and takes a practical, commonsense approach to the problems that are facing the people. As a result, I know that what we are saying is not falling on deaf ears. Keeping people in their own homes is the most important thing. Whether a person is getting old or their house is in disrepair, it is important to keep them living there for as long as possible. Their home is their castle and it is where they want to be. Adapting homes and making them more suitable is terribly important and an onerous responsibility. The whole way of assessing the grant aid allowable has to be looked at. If a younger person is living in the house with the older person who might want an essential repair grant or a disability grant, taking that younger person's income into account is unfair. They need their income to sustain themselves. Just because they live in the house should not go against the applicant. I would earnestly ask the Minister to look at that

While we appreciate every euro provided by our local authorities, the grants being allocated now are not enough because all the items used in construction have increased in price so much. When a person gets a grant of €5,000 they really should be getting €8,000 to keep up with what was there a couple of years ago. Those are the kinds of figures we are talking about. Whether it is our director of services for housing, Martin O'Donoghue, the contractors, subcontractors and people who work directly for Kerry County Council who go out and do repairs to houses, the engineers, the clerk of works or the girls in the office, I thank them all for the excellent work they do for the council on behalf of all of us.

Deputy Richard O'Donoghue

I welcome the adaptation grant in the context of the three areas it covers and the quality of life that it gives to people. I have seen first-hand the life-changing effects the grants can have. Unfortunately, the level of funding relating to the grant has major consequences for the most vulnerable in our society. Only €81 million was allocated in 2022. Rising costs, supply chain issues and the scarcity of builders and tradespeople is having a major impact.

I thank the county council office in Limerick city and the rural office for the hard work they are doing. They deliver a turnaround in three or four weeks to help our office to help other people. But what can we do to help with inflation for these grants? The square footage price in 2020 was €120. For every square foot of a house, the Government took €16.20 in VAT. It takes 23% VAT on materials. In order to counteract the impact of inflation in respect of the adaptation grants, could the Government remove both sets of VAT? If it did so, it would mean that people who are getting materials for their houses through the adaptation grant would not have to pay the VAT of 23% on materials or the 13% relating to labour. That would help stretch the money people get via the grants without the need to increase them. We could do something that way. The Minister would not have to go to Europe to remove the VAT relating to materials or labour. That would be at the Government's discretion.

Deputy Thomas Pringle

I thank the Regional Group for putting forward this motion. It is important that we talk about the disabled grants and the various grants that are available from local authorities. It has been striking that they have not been raised for discussion in the House in the form of Topical Issue matters and so on.

They are vitally important. In my Donegal County Council days in the early 2000s, as a result of the reduced amount of money that it was getting for grants every year, the council introduced a limit on what could be available for different types of works and stuff such as that. It was trying to extend the amount of money and make it reach more people, which actually reduced the effectiveness of the grants. That is a problem. We have to try to find a way to make the grants do what they are supposed to do and make them worthwhile applying for.

Of course, that comes back to the Department and increased funding. While the Department may say that the council can come up with money, 80% of the council’s funding comes from the Government in one way or another. As a result, there is very little room for councils to raise funding. There is the possibility of perhaps looking at some sort of a VAT rebate or something like that for people who apply for grants. Perhaps that could be a way of making it more effective and giving more to them. Something needs to be done. They are grants that are extremely important and that are needed right across the board. Only yesterday I was talking to a person in Letterkenny who got approval for a grant of €30,000, but the cost of the works had increased from €60,000 to €70,000 and is now approaching €80,000. That person who applied for the grant is on a disability allowance and cannot afford to make up the balance. How can they make up a €50,000 balance when they are on disability allowance? It is just not possible. That does not make it any easier for the Minister in terms of a set funding amount and trying to make that go as far as possible as well, but it is something that needs to be looked at and addressed.

There is also the matter of people who live in rental accommodation scheme, RAS, and similar housing. They are viewed as being dealt with by the local authorities. How can they access grants, etc.? That is important. In the context of its tenants, a council will pay the full amount. However, councils insist that people apply for the grants and go through the whole process themselves. That is despite the fact that the councils own the properties involved. I fail to see how that makes sense. It probably does in some bizarre way of accounting. A council can say that it is a matter for the tenant and that is how it goes about its business. However, it does not make sense and it is putting much of the onus on applicants to ensure that the grant is actually provided. That needs to be looked at. There are things that perhaps can be considered in terms of making the scheme more effective and workable for people. That is possible. I hope the Department will be looking at that to ensure that it goes further for people.

The Labour Party suggested that the HSE should be involved in the grant scheme. I would be loath to see that because it would be one way of making sure that nothing would happen, unless it is at a very high level where it would be carved off the HSE budget and handed over to the Department. That is the only way that I could see the HSE being involved. Donegal County Council involved the HSE and occupational therapists in order to look at the disabled persons grants and so on. That just stopped the grant scheme right away. The HSE did not see it as part of its core work, so it did not provide the staff. The council was insistent that it had to get staff from the HSE, however,and it just slowed the whole process down completely. I would be loath to involve the HSE.

The HSE is involved with disabled grants and disabled housing requirements at the moment. A great deal could be said for removing responsibility in that regard from the HSE and handing it over to the local authorities. The local authorities are geared up to look at housing and housing requirements for everybody. It should be part of the system. One aspect of the problem is that the HSE looks at somebody living at home with their parents as being sorted, even though they might be 40 or 50 and their parents are going into their 80s. There are going to be difficulties in this regard because these people are not sorted.

There are many problems with the scheme. There is no doubt about that. Accessing the scheme is becoming increasingly difficult. That is a false economy because the Government is not meeting any need, but it is providing funding. That means the Government gets bad press and becomes annoyed about it. Staff get annoyed about it as well, and the people cannot find any way forward.

Years ago, it was a scheme that made a big difference to people and their lives as well. How a disabled person can live at home is vitally important. The Minister will not have an easy task in making it work for people. In reality, it has to be made to work. There are tweaks and changes that can be introduced that will make it more reflective and easier for people to deal with as well.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy Darragh O'Brien)

Ba mhaith liom míle buíochas a ghabháil leis an nGrúpa Réigiúnach as an rún a chuir siad os comhair na Dála inniu. Díospóireacht dearfach, tábhachtach agus cuiditheach is ea é. It has been a positive but constructive debate. I thank the Deputy for tabling the motion and I appreciate the contributions of the members of the Regional Group so far. As the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, stated at the outset, we will not be opposing the motion. The area of adaptation grants for our older people and, indeed, people with special needs and disabilities is a significant one in the context of housing. I will try to directly address some of the points that have been raised.

If I may, I wish to refer to the issue of ceiling hoists. This is someting I want to see included. We have pretty much concluded our work in housing for some time now. We co-operated with the HSE in respect of training people to use the hoists. That work is close to being concluded. We have had good co-operation from the HSE. It would be a significant step forward for what is included. As people get older, particularly those who have no mobility at all, it puts much additional pressure on families. I visited homes in my constituency and across the country, and I want to see that done. I want to put that on the record of the House. We have had decent co-operation from the HSE heretofore, but we need to bring the matter to a conclusion now.

Deputies will know that in Housing for All we have committed to a review of housing adaptation grants for older people and those with disabilities. The review is under way right now, which is why the motion is very timely. The review continues to be informed by ongoing engagement with external stakeholders, which is also very important. Deputies Canney, Shanahan, Murphy and Naughten mentioned - and it has been raised with us as well - that the people who are more positively affected by getting the grant are the ones who know what works and what does not. That is why we are engaging with the Disability Federation of Ireland, the Irish Wheelchair Association and the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation, to name but a few.

Formal submissions will be invited very shortly in relation to the review. When some people hear the word “review”, they think it is only a review and wonder when things will be done. I want the review completed this year. It will contemplate areas such as income thresholds, which have not been looked at in ten or 11 years, the grant limits and the application and decision-making processes, including all of the supplementary documentation that is required from time to time. We also need to see consistency of approach across our local authorities. I will address that matter in a moment. The review will be completed by the end of the year. It is a priority for me and my colleagues to get that done. I am very focused on concrete action that can be taken to improve the process. When people get the grants, they work. Since this scheme was introduced, 110,000 families have been able to have their homes adapted. As Deputy Canney stated, people can live and stay in their homes with dignity. That is where people want to be. If they can, we will facilitate that.

I see Deputy Daly is back in the House. I just mentioned the inclusion of the hoist, work on which I am concluding. I need co-operation from the HSE, which we are getting. We are working through that and I want to see it done.

The majority of local authorities have adapted their approach as part of a streamlined application process to ensure that all available resources are targeted towards those who need it most, including prioritisation on the grounds of medical and financial needs. While that has improved across many local authorities, we need to ensure there is consistency. We need to look at those who are currently in hospital or in step-down care and how they can be prioritised to get the work done in order that they can get back home.

That does not always happen in the application process. I should add that this is not just in the gift of the local authority and it requires co-operation from occupational therapists, who are also under pressure, to provide the reports indicating the necessary, appropriate or suitable adaptation. We have people in hospital, step-down or longer-term care and if their homes could be adapted, they would be back home. It is the type of process we will work through.

I am really conscious of the social benefit that accrues from the scheme. To be very fair, as I said at the outset, everybody who contributed to the debate did so in a very constructive way. People recognise the scheme is good and the principle is very good. As schemes evolve, they provide lessons, and that is why the review that will be under way really shortly is important. We will be able to say what works well, what does not and how we can change things.

I have already mentioned that 110,000 households have benefitted from this grant scheme, which is a lot of households. It is good and we want to do more. How will we do that? We will do more by improving the process and increasing funding as well. Looking back to 2013, we went from a base of €43 million to €81 million in 2022. As has been recognised as well, it is a very significant increase to be able to ensure we can do more work for more people. The same approach is being taken in supports for adaptations to local authority housing under the disabled person grant, which has increased from just over €15 million in 2019 to €24 million at the end of 2021. These exemplify real and substantial benefits accruing to people.

As well as increased funding, we are also working closely with local authorities to spend over the year and achieve full drawdown. That is to allow some discretion within local authorities. Many of them manage this very well and we give line budgets without micromanaging but I am nonetheless responsible for the scheme. However, some specific cases have been raised today and we expect the decision makers at local level to make appropriate and responsible decisions as well. There is, nonetheless, discretion provided. Grants for older people were mentioned earlier but some people under 66 can access them in certain cases. I have seen such a case in my constituency of Dublin Fingal. The discretion is used but we must tighten up the process to ensure there is consistency in approach.

We monitor the administration of the scheme across the board. If there are any issues noted by Teachtaí in their constituency work that they might raise with local authorities, they may also feed examples to us and it will inform our review as well. Our ageing population policy statement also emphasises my Department's commitment to streamlining the application process. That must be done and it will be concluded as part of the review.

In the past six months, officials from my Department have completed virtual meetings with representatives of all 31 local authorities. The focus of this effort is identifying the inconsistencies. We have been doing that on a face-to-face basis, albeit virtually, to ensure grants are more accessible. There is no desire in any way, shape or form, for the Government to save money in this space.

The only two comments today I reject came from Deputies Paul Murphy and Mick Barry, and they did not speak to the reality. They did not recognise the fact that we cannot just set up a State building agency overnight and employ people or local authorities overnight to do all the work being done elsewhere. I should add that the work is done by small contractors, many of which are local to the job and know the people for whom they are working. They know the area and, in the main, such a process works very well. There has been pressure on labour and I am thankful that in the construction sector we have now increased the workforce by approximately 10,000 on pre-pandemic levels. We need more, however, as we are asking a lot of that sector and our local authorities.

On the broader front, under the national housing strategy for disabled people, which runs from 2022 to 2027 and which I launched earlier this year, work is currently being advanced in the first instance with the Housing Agency, including Mr. Bob Jordan and his team working on the implementation plan. We are not waiting for the review for that to be done. The plan will be based on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I acknowledge and welcome the inclusion of that in the motion today. Consideration will be given to the principles of the convention as part of the review of the grant scheme itself.

On the budget of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, it has been mentioned that just short of €120 million has been allocated to provide energy efficiency upgrades to households at risk of energy poverty. Some were saying earlier - not from the Regional Group benches I should add - that the budget was decreasing year-on-year but that is not true. We will deliver more than 5,100 free upgrades under the SEAI energy poverty schemes in 2022, up from 2,200 in 2021. It is a significant increase and it means the total Government retrofit budget of €203 million will be spent on dedicated energy poverty schemes and local authority retrofits.

I thank the Deputies for moving the motion and their ongoing engagement on this matter. As there is such interest in the topic, we should discuss the review in the Dáil after it is published and plot the next step forward on its implementation.

Deputy Cathal Berry

I am sharing time with Deputy Naughten. I am delighted to be here to contribute to this very important debate on housing adaptation grants for older people and those with disabilities. I am very familiar with the motion and I fully endorse it. I am very happy to support it. I am also very grateful for the Minister's very positive engagement and interaction this morning, which is a very positive sign.

I support the motion for three primary reasons. The first is from a financial perspective. It is customary for people on this side of the House to always ask for more money to be spent by the Government on society but in the round with this we are seeking for less money to be spent. We are familiar with the cost of an overnight stay in an acute hospital bed and the cost of nursing home beds. This is a much cheaper and more effective way of looking after people in need, whether it is from the perspective of older people or those with a disability; it is about keeping them in their own homes, where they want to be. It will save much money for the Exchequer over time.

I welcome the existence of these grants but, as my colleagues have pointed out, we must look at the fixed thresholds, including ceilings on the worth of grants and the income of applicants. Both of those are too low. I welcome the Minister's comments about the review in that regard.

The second reason I support the motion is from a legal and moral perspective. As the Minister quite rightly pointed out, we are signatories to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. They have a right to live where and with whom they wish. The State has been 100% right in pointing out the Russian Federation's breaching of international law and we are also right in reminding our UK counterparts that they signed an international treaty by which they should abide. If we are the rule of law country we claim to be, we should be guided by the UN convention. I am very happy to hear the Minister's comments in that regard as well.

The third reason I support the motion is from the perspective of seeking a superior outcome. Whether people are patients or clients, they want to stay in their home. There are a number of reasons for this. For example, they may have an emotional connection with where they have grown up and lived. We do not know if the pandemic is finished or if there will be another pandemic and it is important to realise people are much safer in their homes than in congregated settings, so we should support them living at home.

I wholeheartedly welcome the discussion on the motion this morning and I am truly supportive of it from a financial, a legal and a moral perspective, and from the perspective of providing superior outcomes. Perhaps the most important reason I am backing it is that there is no place like home. It is up to the Government and every Deputy in the Chamber to ensure that phrase endures.

Acting Chairman (Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan)

Before Deputy Naughten speaks, I welcome the students of Gaelscoil an Bhradáin Feasa from Drogheda. Cuirim fáilte rompu go léir.

Deputy Denis Naughten

I also welcome the students, who are very welcome to Leinster House.

I acknowledge the work of Ms Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, who worked on this motion with us.

As Deputy Berry pointed out, we are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. We are telling the Russian Federation and the British Government that international laws and international agreements are in place and, as a State, we are asking those countries to abide by them. It is only just and proper then that we, as a State, also comply with international law. One of the principles of the UNCRPD is that the people concerned should have the equal right to housing and to live within their own communities regardless of their disability. The housing aid for older people scheme, the mobility grant aid scheme and the housing adaptation grant for people with a disability are key to that. These schemes allow people to continue living independently in their own homes in their own communities for far longer. It is imperative that we facilitate this. The reality is that the grants rates have not increased in recent years. These rates today do not reflect current building costs. The income thresholds also need to be modernised and updated. I am glad the Minister has listened to us, acknowledged this point and is determined to address this issue.

I will give one example of what we are talking about. A constituent of mine has applied for the housing adaptation grant. The person concerned is an amputee and resides in a two-storey house. The only income this person has is social welfare. An application was made for the award of the grant to Galway County Council, which was successful. The maximum rate for the housing adaptation grant was awarded, which is €30,000. This person was, believe it or not, lucky enough to get contractors to price the work. I say that because one of the biggest problems faced in respect of all these grant schemes, and especially in the context of the supports for older people and the grant for those with a disability, is trying to get a contractor to price the work required. It is nearly impossible because of the bureaucracy involved in the process. The low rate of the grant also means many contractors are not interested in this work anymore. The result is that there is a big problem in getting price estimates for this type of work in the first place. In the case I am speaking about, however, my constituent did secure estimated prices for the work. These varied from €48,000 to €60,000. This was more than three months ago and the likelihood, given the way the costs have increased, is that the price has probably risen since.

My constituent, who had a small amount of savings, went to the credit union in Ballinasloe, explained the predicament and the credit union was prepared to offer a loan of €8,000. The difficulty is that this person cannot make up the remaining balance of €10,000. Therefore, in the context of providing people with a grant of €30,000, it would be as well to refuse people's applications as to give them that amount of money. This applicant does not have, and cannot access, the resources to secure the outstanding €10,000 required to put a toilet and bathroom and a bedroom downstairs to allow continued residence. This situation is forcing this person onto the chaotic housing waiting lists, with 60,000 people already on them and that number is, sadly, rising. It makes no sense. We should be trying to facilitate people to remain in their own houses rather than putting additional pressure on our housing lists.

What is perverse about this situation is that those of us who are members of the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands heard evidence two weeks ago that some local authorities are actually handing back money that has been provided for these grants annually. This is happening because it is a co-financing scheme, requiring a contribution to be made by the local authorities. Family Carers Ireland, FCI, would be interested in acting as a co-financing agent in this respect to ensure that money is not sent back from the local authorities annually. In fairness to the Government, it is providing resources. All those resources should be utilised. I ask the Minister to engage with the FCI in this regard.

I was speaking about the grant for people with a disability. I could spend all day giving the Minister other examples of similar situations in this regard. The Minister is well aware of the issues and this was reflected in his and the Government's response. Additionally, though, we have the housing aid for older people grant scheme. These grants are intended for those trying to adapt a house to meet the needs of an older person. The Minister knows we have a serious housing crisis and yet many of the adaptations being done to houses are being done under the disability grant scheme or the older person's grant scheme to make a family-type house suitable for an older person to live in. We are talking about three- and four-bedroom family-type homes close to schools and services and so forth being adapted with public money to make them suitable for people who may have mobility issues or for older people. These are houses that are too big and costly for people to heat. The people concerned could do with much smaller accommodation, but that is not available now. Particularly in the private sector, we must explore making one- and two-bedroom homes available in our villages, towns and cities. These homes should be close to existing services needed by older people and close as well to bus routes. These would be homes that would allow older people to downsize. The Minister is committed to downsizing, but this process will only work if older people have feasible alternative options to embrace. Such options are not there now. We must support the development of one- and two-bedroom cluster-type housing developments for older people to allow them to downsize their accommodation. That would, in turn, release family homes back onto the market and help the general housing situation.

In tandem with that approach, we must also address the issue of security of tenure. Older people selling their homes would then buy these one- or two-bedroom homes or, as would make far more sense, enter into a long-term lease. We must, however, bring in laws that will provide security of tenure, especially for older people in the cluster-type accommodation I referred to, to ensure residents are guaranteed a fixed rent for the time they require that accommodation. If these two measures could be implemented, some of the pressure could be removed from this grant scheme. Family homes that are desperately needed could also be released right across the country.

The final issue I raise with the Minister concerns the green agenda and local authority houses in this context. There are delays in carrying out these types of adaptations in local authority houses for those with disabilities and-or older people. In some local authorities, it is taking four years to have these adaptations completed. When these adaptations are being done, then, they are not being completed to the current environmental standards. Heating systems are being replaced with oil-fired central heating systems. This means we will have to go back and retrofit those homes with non-fossil fuel heating systems. We urgently need to retrofit our local authority housing stock.

On this issue of retrofitting, Project Ireland 2040 committed to retrofitting 45,000 homes annually from 2021 onwards. This year, the Government has committed to retrofitting just 22,000 homes, a target that falls significantly short of what has already been committed to and for which the funding is already in place. Only 4,500 of those homes are inhabited by people living in conditions of fuel poverty. Even those other homes are reliant on retrofitting grants which are not yet available. The grants were already announced by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, but they are not yet available. Therefore, while we are all talking about climate change now, talk is cheap. Retrofitting must be delivered, but it is not happening. The targets have been reduced by this Government and even those abysmal targets are not going to be achieved this year. This is an indictment of where we need to be going as a country and a society.

I commend the motion to the House and I thank the Government for its support.

Question put and agreed to.