Housing Aid for the Elderly.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 April 2004

Tuesday, 27 April 2004

Questions (525)

John McGuinness

Question:

583 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Health and Children the amount of funding required by the SEHB to complete the lists approved under the housing aid for the elderly scheme for 2002; the amount required by the SEHB to deal with the 2003 list; the amount to date required for 2004; the action being taken by his Department and the SEHB to deal with the funding issue and back-log; if the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny will be prioritised based on age and medical circumstances; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11691/04]

Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. Callely)

As the Deputy will be aware, the provision of this service in the Kilkenny area is, in the first instance, the responsibility of the South Eastern Health Board. My Department has, therefore, asked the chief executive of the board to investigate the case raised by the Deputy and reply direct to him as a matter of urgency.

The issue of funding for the special housing aid scheme for the elderly is not a matter for my Department, as the scheme is funded by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The information requested by the Deputy has been provided by the board as follows. At the end of 2003 it was estimated that the following additional sums would be required to clear the outstanding waiting lists for this scheme. This information would also have been provided to the Department of Environment, Heritage, and Local Government.

Year	Estimated applications on hand	Estimated cost of outstanding applications
		€
2002	119	283,900
2003	103	572,200

Based on the total number of applications received to date only, the board would require an additional €140,000 to clear these requests.