Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 December 2023
93. Deputy Patricia Ryan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage with regard to Kildare County Council’s housing aid grants for older people, if he can investigate a grant application for persons (details supplied). [54016/23]
View answer96. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the options that are available for disabled people who cannot afford adaptions and are slightly over the means test threshold, and therefore are not entitled to have it paid for; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54030/23]
View answer99. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will increase the threshold for the housing aid for older persons grant, given the current maximum grant under this scheme is €8000, with the cost of labour, materials and living increases making it inaccessible and unaffordable for many older people to bridge the gap between the awarded grant and the actual cost of the project (details supplied), and with many older people needing to refit their bathrooms on health and safety grounds to the HSE-required standard to include accessible showers, toilets and grab rails as part of their long term needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54096/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 93, 96 and 99 together.
My Department provides Exchequer funding to local authorities to administer 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.
The income limits and maximum grant amounts payable under the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability Scheme are underpinned by S.I. 670 of 2007, and amended in 2014 by S.I. No. 104 of 2014.
The administration of the grants scheme, including the assessment, approval and prioritisation of grant applications under the various measures, is the responsibility of each local authority. Having considered all of the circumstances in any particular case, it is a matter for the local authority to determine grant eligibility. Local authorities, in administering the scheme, work with qualifying applicants to secure the most beneficial outcome possible in line with the applicants' financial circumstances and within the parameters of the Grant Scheme. However, individual applications are solely a matter for the local authority in question.
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 which 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.
On foot of my consideration of the Review report, my Department shared the report and supplementary analysis with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform and is engaging with the Department on the recommendations in the report. I will publish the report once this engagement has concluded.
