Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join other members in welcoming our guests and thank them for their contributions. I wish to ask two questions, the first of which is on AHBs. We would like to empower people to aspire to own their own homes, where possible. Tenant purchase schemes have been advanced over many years by several Governments, including a welcome one in recent weeks. The same opportunity does not exist for tenants of AHBs and housing associations. Has there been any discussion with or indication from the Government that this possibility will be explored? It is an aspiration of many local councillors that those tenants will have the same opportunity to purchase their homes as local authority tenants do.

My second question is for the HFA. A cohort of people have been left behind in recent years. I have seen this in my local authority area and others. I am referring to the elderly and the means they have to adapt their homes to meet medical and other needs. Local authorities access such funding from the Government based on the amount that they can invest themselves. In recent years, they could invest nothing and, therefore, nothing came from the Government. The waiting lists are spiralling out of control in some counties. In mine, I know of 70 or 80 cases that each need approximately €15,000, amounting to more than €1 million, for house adaptation works to meet elderly people's requirements and allow them to remain in their homes and part of their families and communities. In the absence of that money, they face the possibility of going to nursing homes or long-stay beds in hospitals and so forth. That is, if they survive the five-year wait for funding to be made available. In the meantime, the cost to the State is as much as €15 million when €1 million could have sorted the problem out in the short term.

Has there been any communication from the Government on exploring a means by which the HFA could have a role in addressing this gap? Home ownership and whatnot present legal issues, but a scheme similar to the fair deal scheme, under which the State puts a charge on an elderly person's house, may be appropriate to meet existing demands. While all of the focus is rightly on the dearth of housing and lack of progress in that regard, the elderly have been left behind. We would like to see an exploration of this issue and ideas and suggestions emanating from that for the Government to implement thereafter.