Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 30 March 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters

Housing Policy and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage

Photo of Seán CanneySeán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and his officials for joining us today. The first thing I want to talk about is the local authorities' housing adaptation grants and all that goes with them. I have come across a situation in my constituency whereby people apply for these grants and find themselves going over an income threshold, in some cases because they have somebody in the house. I know of an elderly couple who have a daughter with special needs in the house. Their three incomes were combined and it meant they did not get the full value of the grant because they were over a certain threshold. The thresholds are there for a reason but they should be looked at and index linked each year rather than leaving them static over a long time.

The housing adaptation grants are great for people who want to remain in their homes and I compliment the local authorities. However, there should be a bit more support for people who need it to allow them to remain in their homes. That is especially the case with the adaptation of a bathroom, for example, where a bath needs to be replaced with a level access shower. That type of thing should be fully endorsed with a good lump of money for applicants because they will come up with the balance, whether through going to the credit union or whatever is necessary.

There is also a lack or gap in the system when it comes to people who acquire an injury which leaves them in a wheelchair, or where they have an accident and must have a limb amputated, or where they acquire a brain injury. All of a sudden, such people's whole lives have changed. They might need to adapt the house fully to make sure they can live there. Take the example of a two-storey house with bedrooms upstairs. If one wants to build a ground floor area where an injured person can live a truly full life, the amount of grant available is small compared with what the overall cost to do something like that can be. That needs to be looked at.

Parents who have children with autism have told me they want to make sure they have some sort of sensory room within their homes for their children. There is very little support for something like that. What we have in terms of grants for adaptations from local authorities is good but they need to be reviewed and the thresholds need to be increased. We should also look at increasing the amount of money available, especially for people who, all of a sudden, find themselves in a position where their lives have changed and they have to adapt their houses in a speedy way. Such people often have to borrow money to make those alterations, which is on top of all the stress of their lives having changed.

In general, with the designing of houses for private or public use, it is important the housing agencies are included in what we are doing here. When a universal design is built, there is an additional cost that must be borne by the State to make sure we allow people to live full and independent lives as much as they can. We are now reviewing local authority strategies, but the local authorities also need support from central government to make sure things happen.

That was a commentary. Does anybody want to say anything about the level of grants from local authorities, which I think are brilliant?

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