Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will tell the Deputy the progress we have made in recent months. One of the pieces was around the housing adaptation grant for disabled and older persons about which the Deputy spoke. The grant system never recognised the sensory needs of young people. To be fair to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, he changed the qualifications to acknowledge that sensory needs can be part of the system.

If a room needs to be provided for the sensory needs of a young person, the local authorities now recognise that. That was progress in recent months while this consultation on the strategy was coming through.

I agree the sum given through the housing adaptation grant needs to be reviewed, given that sometimes we do not need to move people from their houses. Perhaps their changing needs have to be addressed, but sometimes the changing need might be a bit more expensive than the €30,000 that is allocated. It might be able to be done over two or three years, but to meet that need, it needs to be done now. That is another issue that needs to be addressed. To be fair on this to the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, they have been very open and approachable in regard to listening to people about meeting that need.