Olivia Mitchell
Ceist:67 Ms O. Mitchell asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if the Government plans to increase the supply of sheltered or supported accommodation for older people. [19661/01]
Priority Questions. - Housing Aid for the Elderly.
I am committed to ensuring that older people have access to housing appropriate to their needs. I have introduced a number of measures to ensure a wider range of housing options for older people, including assistance towards necessary improvements or repairs for those who wish to remain living in their homes, and the provision of accommodation, including sheltered accommodation, for those whose accommodation is no longer suitable to their needs.
Local authorities provide accommodation for the elderly as part of their social housing programmes, generally in small specially designed housing schemes linked to local community services. Beyond this, my Department has requested local authorities to construct more senior citizen units in appropriate locations with a view to earmarking them for older people generally.
Since 1988, more than 2,800 units have been provided under the voluntary housing capital assistance scheme specifically for older people. Under the scheme, this accommodation is generally built with communal facilities where support services can be provided. Financial assistance to the voluntary housing sector generally has been increased, and I anticipate that over the period of the national development plan some 3,000 additional units of accommodation will be provided specifically for older people under the capital assistance scheme.
I am also anxious to assist older home owners who wish to move to more suitable accommodation. Two specific measures were announced in Action on Housing to assist such home owners. First, the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs has doubled, from £75,000 to £150,000, the amount of net proceeds of the sale of a dwelling which is exempt for assessing means for non-contributory pensions. In addition, the Minister for Health and Children has requested health boards to consider the disincentive effect of loss of medical card eligibility on older people who move to more appropriate accommodation. The Government has also reduced stamp duty to lower transaction costs of moving to more suitable accommodation.
I am committed to ensuring the housing needs of older people will be appropriately and comprehensively met over the coming years. To this end, local authority housing strategies, the national house condition survey to commence this autumn and next year's assessment of need for local authority housing will take account of the needs and circumstances of older people.
My question referred to a continuum of care for elderly people. The housing options are private or public and range from bricks and mortar to a nursing home. There is a range of possible provision within that which is not funded although it is part of Government policy to provide for and support such facilities. It is a commitment in the Partnership for Prosperity and Fairness and there are targets in the national development plan.
The reality is that the only bodies providing this type of supported and sheltered housing for the elderly who are no longer able to stay in their homes and who do not want to and should not have to go to nursing homes are the voluntary or co-operative housing associations. There is little point in their providing the facilities if there is no revenue funding to ensure support can be on-site. It falls between the Department of the Environment and Local Government, local authorities and health boards. No one will take control of the problem as a whole. It needs co-ordination. Are there any plans to provide that to ensure the range of options for elderly people is available?
Provision is made under the social housing programme. I mentioned the capital assistance scheme to provide accommodation for elderly people. Such accommodation has communal facilities. The health boards are also actively involved in providing support to the homes they provide. There is a range of other facilities to enable and assist people to continue to live in their homes, although the condition of houses is a major factor.
This is an area in which I am anxious to encourage much greater use of the schemes available, such as the capital assistance scheme which has been beneficial to the older community in different localities. It is wonderful to see voluntary groups throughout the country organising the building of groups of houses for older people in their areas where they can live in a community in which they have privacy while also sharing communal facilities. Such accommodation is normally located close to services such as shops, churches and other facilities in towns and cities throughout the country. We want to see more activity in this area.
The Government is anxious to see the coming together of groups of people who do not qualify for social housing but who occupy housing, mostly in urban areas, and who are willing to move to smaller, purpose built accommodation for older people. This would release their houses on to the market and make a contribution to housing needs while at the same time allowing the people to be accommodated in more suitable housing with communal facilities. A pilot scheme was announced in the budget to try to establish this. It can proceed where sites are available, and the Government is anxious to work out a scheme to assist people who wish to avail of that.
The time for Priority Questions has concluded.
May I point out something to the Minister of State?
We come now to Question No. 68 in the name of Deputy Moynihan-Cronin.
I am entitled to another supplementary question.
The Chair has no control. I had to rule Deputy Gilmore out earlier.
How long is allowed for a question?
Six minutes.
The Minister of State has been allowed to talk absolute rubbish.
On a point of order, I thought the Minister of State had a minute to respond to supplementary questions.
Not on Priority Questions. I call Question No. 68 in the name of Deputy Moynihan-Cronin.
The Minister of State is being deliberately obtuse talking about capital assistance schemes when the question was about revenue funding.