Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 June 2023
711. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will give additional resources to Louth County Council to expedite urgent housing adaptation grant application cases (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27687/23]
View answerMy Department provides funding to local authorities under the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability, to assist people in private houses to make their accommodation more suitable for their needs. These grants are available to older people as well as disabled people who have an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual impairment.
The detailed administration of the scheme including assessment, approval, prioritisation and apportionment is the responsibility of local authorities. In 2022, almost €86 million in funding was made available to facilitate the payment of over 12,000 grants. Local authorities were recently informed of their 2023 allocations with each local authority receiving an increase on the 2022 allocation, continuing the year on year increases since 2014. The funding available for these grants in 2023 has been increased by almost €2 million on the original 2022 provision to a total of over €83 million.
My Department works closely with the local authorities to monitor spend and to achieve a full drawdown of available funding. This means that any underspends that arise on the part of any local authority can be redistributed to other authorities which have high levels of grant activity and my Department makes every effort to redistribute such funding throughout the year. My Department encourages all local authorities to ensure all applications on hand are processed to the degree possible for final payment to ensure optimal spend on their annual allocation. Whilst additional Exchequer funding may become available, the Council must provide the 20% match funding from their own resources therefore the Council is also managing the scheme within the resources allocated at the local level.
In 2022, Louth County Council received an allocation of almost €2.25 million and spent approx €1.35 million.
In 2023, Louth County Council received an allocation of over €2.3 million which comprises of over €1.86 million Exchequer funding and over €0.46 million to be funded from the local authority's own resources.
Louth County Council applied recently for a further Exchequer allocation of over €570,000 and my Department is giving consideration to this request and will make a decision in this regard as soon as possible.
Importantly, my Department advises local authorities annually that, as far as practicable, a percentage of the allocation under the schemes should be ring fenced in respect of any emergency applications which might arise under these schemes during the course of the year.
Consequently, all local authorities manage their schemes to ensure access to the grants programme is maintained to the extent possible throughout the year in the highest priority cases and further information in this regard would be available directly from the local authorities. Louth County Council has confirmed that urgent cases involving hospital discharges are still being processed.
