Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 September 2018
239. Deputy Jan O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government when he next expects to allocate funding to local authorities for housing adaptation grants including for persons with a disability, mobility issues or older persons; his plans to increase the funding for these grants in view of the waiting lists in many areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38162/18]
View answerFor 2018, I have provided €66.25 million for the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability, an increase of some 11% on 2017. Funding for these schemes has been increasing year on year since 2014 and 9,080 households benefitted in 2017, with 10,000 expected to benefit in 2018.
The approach each year is to issue a single full year allocation to the local authorities, so that they can plan and implement the grants programme. Over the course of the year, my Department works closely with the local authorities to monitor spend and to achieve a full drawdown of the available funding. This allows any underspends to be redistributed to local authorities with high levels of grant activity who seek additional funding.
