I propose to take Questions Nos. 317, 318, 340, 345 and 348 together.
My Department provides Exchequer funding to local authorities to support the suite of Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability which support older and disabled people living in private houses to adapt their home to meet their needs. The grants include the Housing Adaptation Grant for People with a Disability, the Mobility Aids Grant and the Housing Aid for Older People Grant, which are 80% funded by my Department, with a 20% contribution from the resources of the local authority. The detailed administration of these schemes including assessment, approval and prioritisation is the responsibility of local authorities.
Exchequer funding of €66.5 million is available nationally for the grant scheme in 2023. As part of the annual budgetary process the Exchequer funding provision for 2024 has been increased by €8 million to a total of €75 million, continuing the year on year increases since 2014.
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.
The details supplied relate to point in time information held by local authorities. This information does not account for the ongoing continuous processing of applications and therefore does not provide a comprehensive and up to date account of the existing numbers of applications awaiting assessment in local authorities.
My Department developed a new recoupment claim form which was implemented by local authorities on a phased basis throughout 2022. The new form captures data on the date a valid application is received, approved and paid by a local authority. This will allow the Department to calculate the average length of time that it will take a local authority to approve valid applications and issue grant payments over the 12-month period of 2023 taking account that local authorities submit recoupment claims in batches at various stages throughout the year. This approach will ensure that all local authorities are correctly represented in the resulting data, which will be available for publication in early 2024.
Housing for All commits to reviewing the grants scheme and a report on the review has been prepared by my Department. The review was informed by engagement with external stakeholders, including the Department of Health, the HSE, the Disability Federation of Ireland and the Irish Wheelchair Association. Written submissions were also invited and considered as part of this process. Among the areas the review considered are the income thresholds (including the means test provisions) and grant limits, and the application and decision-making processes including the supplementary documentation required.
Following my consideration of the Review report, my Department is engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform on the recommendations in the report, this engagement is ongoing at present and will conclude as soon as possible. I will publish the report once this engagement has concluded.
