Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 January 2024
743. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his views on the need to transition financial reliefs for housing programmes to a voucher system, rather than a grant system, to ensure inclusion of applicants who have insufficient means to front the cost of works. [56535/23]
View answerMy Department operates a wide range of grant schemes to address housing need and to support households within their existing housing, including through improvement, retrofitting and upgrading works, tackling vacancy and dereliction and a range of adaptation works to support older people and people with a disability.
In the main, the detailed administration, including assessment, approval and prioritisation, are the responsibility of the relevant local authorities.
As with all Exchequer supported programme expenditure, my Department ensures that grant approval and payment and performance monitoring frameworks are in place across all grant schemes. More broadly, my Department keeps all grant schemes under regular review and any amendments to the operational arrangements of a particular scheme are considered within that context.
