asked the Minister for the Environment the national and EEC grants that are available for making structural changes in buildings, hotels, guesthouses etc. in order to make them more accessible to the disabled.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers - Buildings Accessibility for Disabled.
19.
So far as my Department are concerned provision is made under the scheme of housing grants for the disabled for local authorities to pay grants of up to the full approved cost of the work in the case of non-vested local authority houses or flats and a grant of up to two-thirds of the approved cost in the case of other houses or flats. My Department recoup local authorities up to half the cost of the work, subject to a maximum recoupment of £1,200 in any particular case. I have no functions in this respect in relation to hotels or guesthouses.
Housing authorities are also encouraged by my Department to provide an appropriate proportion of specially adapted dwellings for disabled people as part of their normal house building programme.
I am not aware of any grants from the EEC for the purposes referred to in the question.
Would the Minister not consider giving some incentive to local authorities to provide wheelchair access on footpaths and so on?
I have asked local authorities——
You asked them but you provided nothing in the form of finance.
We cannot have a discussion.
Has the Minister provided an incentive in the form of financial aid to local authorities?
It is a matter for the local authorities to undertake on the allocation they get. The Deputy is alluding to the roads and footpaths grant. It is a matter for the local authorities to decide what they will do with the block grants they get.
Is the Minister aware that this money is decreasing and that he is asking the impossible?
It is a matter for the local authority to decide. In regard to disablement grants, I asked the local authorities to be as flexible as they can and to give the benefit of the doubt in every case.
The local authorities are not in the position of the loaves and the fishes——
I have granted permission to Deputy D'Arcy to ask a Private Notice Question.