Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That seems strange because, to give Ms Timmons the example of Louth County Council for the minute, it has 610 applications. Hundreds of them are priority 1, that is, people who have had strokes, people who have serious mobility issues, people who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, or people in need of a wet room or a downstairs bathroom. The council has 610 on the waiting list going back to 2001, as I said. We used to refer to priority 1 cases. The council used to say you nearly have to have one foot in the grave to be priority 1, so these people are seriously ill and in need of these housing adaptations or aids.

Louth County Council closed applications at the end of April because it could not get through the backlog. It says it has drawn down all the available funding, which contradicts what we were just told. When I asked Ms Timmons whether the Department would provide sufficient funding if the council flagged that it had more than 600 people on the waiting list, she smiled as if to say that would not happen. If what she is saying is accurate, how come there are still 610 applicants, including hundreds of priority 1 cases, on the waiting list and why has the council had to close applications? Since the end of April, my office has been contacted by people who have suffered strokes as well as a woman in her 50s who had a leg amputated two weeks ago. She was discharged from hospital last week. Her family members contacted the local authority, as such a life-altering situation requires her house to be adapted. That family, and every family since, has been told to reapply next January. When I say that the grants are underfunded, it is an understatement. The Department is preventing people from getting adaptions to their homes that they desperately need. The lack of funding is preventing people from living independently in their own homes. Given the cost-benefit analysis that was mentioned, one would have imagined that the Department would accept that adapting homes and providing mobility aids when necessary saved the State billions of euro in the long term.

Louth County Council wants to provide these grants and has stated that it has drawn down every last cent available to it. It did not want to have to close applications. What is the Department going to do to sort this mess out? Would it tell a person who had a serious stroke in the past two weeks and the woman in her 50s who had her leg amputated two weeks ago that they had to wait until January 2024 to apply for the grant even though there are already 610 people waiting in front of them?