Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 15 Dec 1999

Vol. 161 No. 16

Adjournment Matter. - Essential Repairs Grant.

Mr. Burke

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I appreciate that the Minister increased the essential repairs grant in the past two years and, although that increase was wel come at the time, it would seem the amount of money now available to local authorities in the block grant for the essential repairs grant scheme is insufficient. Neither is the grant sufficient in individual cases. I ask the Minister to seriously consider increasing the grant available to individual applicants and also to increase the block grant provided to local authorities. About 500 applicants are currently waiting for the grant in the Mayo County Council area.

While the scheme has resulted in valuable work being carried out over many years, it is restrictive. I am aware of many rural houses in which people, mainly elderly, live in poor conditions. For one reason or another, these people are unable to carry out repairs to their homes. The terms of the scheme stipulate that a house may only be improved for the duration of its inhabitants' lifetimes.

The Minister should make it easier for applicants, older couples and those living alone, to obtain the grant. I am aware of a number of applicants who have applied for the essential repairs grant but they cannot get it because Mayo County Council does not have sufficient money. Engineers carry out reports throughout the county and funding is being eaten up at the beginning of the year. Mayo County Council requires a bigger slice of the cake in regard to the essential repairs scheme.

Essential repairs under the scheme are confined to window, door and roof repairs. In some cases, applicants would be willing to donate funds themselves in order to do a proper job on their houses. Local authority engineers appear to be opposed to this in many cases because they feel that the work carried out on the houses might be too good. The Minister should examine this carefully. I am aware of cases in which people were refused grants because the families of elderly couples provided money for houses to be repaired on the understanding that they could avail of the essential repairs grant. However, when the engineers examined the work, they felt that the work was too good and was over and above essential repairs work. The scheme would seem to be overly restrictive in such instances. Family members or the inhabitants themselves should be able to combine the essential repairs grant with some of their own money in order to carry out a proper job on their houses. Perhaps the level of grant could be increased to £6,000 or £7,000.

It is difficult nowadays for people to get tradesmen and workers and the cost of materials has increased, as have worker's wages. Our tiger economy has resulted in increased costs in the past two or three years. I hope the Minister will respond favourably to my request.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Molloy)

I am somewhat surprised at the Senator for raising the essential repairs grant scheme, given that significant improvements to its terms and conditions were announced as recently as two weeks ago in the budget. Under the budget, the effective maximum grant available under the scheme was increased from £4,500 to £6,000. This increase was in addition to the substantial improvements to the scheme which I introduced in December 1998. Prior to last year's budget, the effective maximum grant stood at just £1,800 and it was increased to £4,500 last December. In short, I have increased the effective maximum grant payable under the essential repairs grant scheme by more than 230 per cent in the past 12 months. In addition, I amended the terms of the scheme to allow grants to be paid in urban areas.

Of course, the essential repairs grant is not the only option available to assist those who are most in need of having essential works carried out to their houses. The disabled person's grant scheme assists disabled persons to carry out necessary adaptations or improvements to their dwellings. I have also twice improved the terms and conditions of this scheme in the past year, and the effective maximum grant now stands at £14,000 with the grant now covering 90 per cent of the approved cost of the works compared to a maximum of £8,000 and two-thirds of the approved cost of the works when I took office.

To meet the additional expenditure under the disabled person's and essential repairs grant scheme, I have allocated over £18.4 million in next year's Estimates – up over 75 per cent on this year's provision and more than four times the amount provided under the scheme as recently as 1997 when Senator Burke's party was in Government.

The Task Force on Special Housing Aid for the Elderly can also assist elderly people to improve their housing conditions. An extra £1 million was provided in the budget for the task force which, together with the increase of £1 million already provided in the abridged Estimates, brings the total allocation to £8 million in 2000 – almost twice the amount spent under the scheme in 1997.

On the general point of extra funding for housing, the overall provision for the local authority and social housing programme has been increased by over 60 per cent in next year's Estimates. This is clear evidence of my and the Government's commitment to meeting the housing needs of the disadvantaged and the elderly in our community.

Mr. Burke

I thank the Minister for the increases he has granted and which will be implemented next year. However, I feel the Minister is not fully aware of the need to remove some of the restrictions relating to the scheme. I welcome the additional funding which he has provided and I thank him for coming to the House.

The Seanad adjourned at 9 p.m. until 12 noon on Thursday, 16 December 1999.