asked the Minister for the Environment whether he has informed applicants who were previously refused new house grants by his Department on the grounds that they had been resident in the house for over 12 months before they lodged their application that this rule has now been changed and that they should make a new application to his Department for the £1,000 house grant.
Written Answers. - Housing Grant Scheme.
465.
Details of rejected applications are not maintained in my Department and with the available staff resources it would not be possible to have all earlier applications checked for the purpose of determining precisely the number of the cases previously rejected. However, when the relevant regulations providing for the change in arrangements were made in August, 1984 all those cases that could be readily identified as having been rejected for non compliance with the earlier `one year' rule were reviewed. By November, 1984 over 150 grant applications which had previously been rejected had been allowed under the new arrangements.
Advertisements were subsequently placed in the daily papers on 30 November, 1984 inviting persons whose cases had not already been reviewed to contact my Department. The earlier applications of those who responded have either been reviewed or are in the course of being reviewed. If the Deputy is aware of particular applications which have not been reviewed so far and the applicants concerned have not yet been in touch with the Department perhaps he would now advise those applicants to contact the Department as soon as possible in the matter. It will not be necessary for them to submit new applications.