Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 June 2023
311. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his attention has been drawn to the very long waiting lists for home adaption grants across many local authorities; his views on the adequacy of these funding allocations to meet the needs of older people; his plans, if any, to make additional funding available for this scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31981/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department provides funding to local authorities under the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability, to assist people in private houses to make their accommodation more suitable for their needs. These grants are available to older people as well as disabled people who have an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual impairment. The detailed administration of the scheme including assessment, approval, prioritisation and apportionment is the responsibility of local authorities. In 2022, additional funding of almost €1 million was made available arising from savings across the Vote on the original Exchequer provision of €65 million resulting in overall expenditure of almost €86 million facilitating the payment of over 12,000 grants. Local authorities were recently informed of their allocations from the 2023 Exchequer provision of €66.5 million or €83.125 million when accounting for the local authority contribution with each local authority receiving an increase on the 2022 allocation, continuing the year on year increases since 2014.My Department advises local authorities annually that, as far as practicable, a percentage of the allocation under the schemes should be ring fenced in respect of any emergency applications which might arise under these schemes during the course of the year. Consequently, all local authorities manage their schemes to ensure access to the grants programme is maintained to the extent possible throughout the year in the highest priority cases and further information in this regard would be available directly from the local authorities. My Department works closely with the local authorities to monitor spend and to achieve a full drawdown of available funding. This means that any underspends that arise on the part of any local authority can be redistributed to other authorities which have high levels of grant activity and my Department makes every effort to redistribute such funding throughout the year. My Department encourages all local authorities to ensure all applications on hand are processed to the degree possible for final payment to ensure optimal spend on their annual allocation. Whilst additional Exchequer funding may become available, the local authorities must provide the 20% match funding from their own resources and therefore the local authorities are also managing the scheme within the resources allocated at the local level. My Department recently considered and approved requests from three Councils for further Exchequer allocation provisions of over €1.5 million in 2023, with request from a fourth Council under consideration.
Housing for All commits to reviewing the Housing Adaptation Grants and a report on the review has been prepared by my Department. The review was informed by engagement with external stakeholders, including the Department of Health, the HSE, the Disability Federation of Ireland and the Irish Wheelchair Association. Among the areas which the review considered are the income thresholds and the grant limits. On foot of my consideration of the Review report, my Department is engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform on the recommendations in the Review report.
