Vol. 401 No. 4
167 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for the Environment if he has made an assessment of the special housing requirements of persons with disabilities, including those of young disabled persons; if he will indicate the likely number of dwellings required for this category during the next five years; and the steps which he proposes to take to assist the provision of such housing.
In so far as the requirements of disabled persons for new local authority accommodation are concerned, I would refer the Deputy to section 9 of the Housing Act, 1988 and to the reply to Questions Nos. 29, 70 and 73 of 28 February 1990. It should be noted that applicants with lesser degrees of disability/handicap may have been assessed to be in housing need under other definitions of need.
Responsibility for the initiation and development of housing proposals rests with the housing authorities. I would however refer the Deputy to section 20 (1) of the Housing Act, 1988, which requires housing authorities to seek to maintain a reasonable balance between the needs of the classes of persons specified in section 9 (2) of the Act.
The disabled persons grant scheme provides special assistance for disabled persons, both in private houses and local authority houses, to carry out works or to provide additional accommodation which is necessary to render a dwelling more suitable for their needs. Housing authorities are empowered to pay grants up to the full approved cost of the work in respect of local authority houses and up to two-thirds of the cost in the case of private dwellings. A figure of 1,139 such grants were paid in 1989.
