Vol. 495 No. 2
165 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the grants available from his Department for the construction of facilities for people with disabilities; and the operation, times and conditions of these schemes. [19784/98]
The only grant available from my Department to meet the accommodation needs of a disabled member of a household is the £3,000 new house grant which may be paid for the provision of a suitably designed or specially adapted new house specifically to meet the needs of the disabled person. In such cases, there is an exemption from the maximum floor area limit and from the requirement that the applicant should not have previously purchased or built a house, which apply to the normal new house grant. The conditions of the new house grant scheme are set out in my Department's explanatory memorandum (HA1) on new house grants, a copy of which is available in the Oireachtas Library.
The time taken from receipt of an application for a new house grant to its payment is influenced by a range of factors, many of them within the control of the applicant and, accordingly, the process can vary appreciably from one application to another.
Under the disabled persons' grants scheme administered by local authorities, assistance in the form of a grant generally up to a maximum of £8,000 is provided for the adaptation or extension of, or provision of additional facilities in, existing houses specifically to meet the needs of disabled persons. Application for a grant under this scheme should be made to the local authority.
