Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to return to Senator Burke's point on the housing adaption grants. It is a major issue but if one lives in a private house, one accesses that grant differently. One submits the application and one will receive the adaptation grant within a number of months. However, a person living in a local authority house on submitting an application will have to wait ten years for an adaptation grant. Therefore, all children are not being treated equally. What is required may need a policy or legislative change, but it would be useful and if Dr. Muldoon examined that and wrote to the local authorities about it. I wrote to the Minister previously about this and pointed that out.

I put it to him that all the grant applications should be treated the same. If a person lives in a local authority house and goes to the local authority if they need to get an adaptation, the local authority stamps it but it does not come out of the same fund. It comes out of different funds. Children are not being treated equally. Children with the same disabilities living in two separate scenarios are being treated differently, which is extremely important.