For 2018, I announced funding of €66.25 million nationally for the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability. This included an allocation of €1,237,425 for Monaghan County Council, comprising exchequer funding of €989,940 and €247,485 from the local authority. Following a request for increased funding, the Council was approved additional exchequer funding of €487,013, bringing their total exchequer allocation to €1,476,953, to which €369,238 will be added from the resources of the local authority. The Council has now drawn down the full €1,476,953 of exchequer funding from my Department.
Funding for these schemes has been increasing year on year since 2014 and in addition to these annual increases, my Department continues to work closely with local authorities throughout each year, 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.
In line with the Programme for a Partnership Government and the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan, I will give further consideration to increasing this funding over the coming years, as I am conscious of the social benefit accruing from these grants in terms of facilitating older people and people with a disability to remain living independently in their own homes.
