Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am in Leinster House. I thank the Minister of State. Many of the questions I wanted to ask have already been asked. We have a shortage of social housing, in particular two-bedroom units. We need to consider building more two-bedroom units. If one drives into a local authority housing estate, or even a private estate, one rarely sees five or six bungalows beside one another. We must think about building more bungalows in the long term for people with disabilities and people who are getting older. That should be a priority.

Many of the people I work with, in conjunction with the Carlow local authority, are looking for two-bedroom houses. A person with a disability would want a two-bedroom bungalow. We speak about adaptation grants, which we all welcome. They are so important. We have the mobility and disabled grants. In Carlow, all the grants are on the one form, which I welcome, but the funding comes from different sources. The mobility grant is not like the adaptation grant and nor is how one qualifies for it. I am glad it is being considered because grants are so important, and we all welcome them, but how does a person qualify for a grant?

I am working with a young lady who is a wheelchair user and who is living in a local authority house. She does not qualify for a grant for windows and doors because she is not over 66 years of age. One always tries to see what people qualify for but people under a certain age do not qualify for a grant for windows and doors. The grant system needs to be considered. Local authorities have received much funding this year for grants. It is welcome but we must ensure we balance the grants, so people who need to access them qualify for them, without having to be over 66 years of age.

I want to ask the Minister of State about the length of time people with a disability are on the housing list, which is an issue. We have 31 local authorities and the Minister of State is aware there seems to be a different mechanism in each local authority in order to qualify. There is no sense of urgency in terms of people with disabilities or people who need houses.

Will the Minister of State consider having a disability officer in each local authority to deal specifically with these issues? They are very serious. We spoke about mental health, which is another issue. Mental health will be so important going forward but people whose mental health is suffering and who need the help of a local authority should be able to contact a staff member who works solely on mental health. I ask the Minister of State to work on issues, such as this, because that is where we are falling down.

We spoke about the grant thresholds. Grants are means-tested. As the threshold for local authority housing has not been reviewed for more than ten years, I know of people who do not qualify to go on their local authority housing list because they are on disability but their partner or spouse is working. That is unacceptable.

I ask the Minister of State to consider the review of local authority housing because it is a significant issue. We must give out information on these issues. I can only praise Carlow County Council, which is my county council, whose staff are always so helpful when one is looking for information. However, we must give out more information.

People with disabilities or with mental health issues are not getting the proper information. I ask that the committee look at making sure information is made available as part of its work going forward. We have all gone through Covid-19. People are staying within their own 5 km area and everyone is trying to work within the boundaries. Local authorities’ hours have changed so if people must access their services, they have to telephone because the office is closed. That is okay because we must be respectful of what is happening now, but we cannot keep going the way we are going. I ask the Minister of State and his Department to look at these issues going forward.