Vol. 509 No. 6
400 Ms Hanafin asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if an extra allocation of funding will be made to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to cater for the disabled person's grant scheme in view of the fact that the funds for 1999 have been utilised due to the high demand; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21000/99]
I introduced significant improvements to the terms and conditions of the disabled person's grant scheme in December last. The effective maximum grant payable under the scheme was increased by 50 per cent from £8,000 to £12,000 in the case of works commenced on or after 2 December 1998. In addition, the maximum grant payable in respect of private houses was increased to three-quarters of the approved cost of the works compared to two-thirds previously. The maximum recoupment payable by my Department to local authorities in respect of each grant was also increased to two-thirds or £8,000 compared to a maximum recoupment of 50 per cent or £4,000 previously. This increase in the recoupment rate allowed local authorities to pay the higher grants now available at no increased cost to the authority.
My Department makes an annual allocation to each housing authority based on estimates of demand for the scheme provided by the authorities. It is, of course, open to the authority to seek a higher allocation in the event of increased demand under the scheme but no such request has been received in my Department.
