Ms AnnMarie Farrelly:

I am a member of the County and City Management Association, CCMA, housing, building and land use, HBLU, committee and I am also chief executive of Fingal County Council. I am joined today by Mr. Michael Rainey, the planning and economic development director of service in Carlow County Council; Mr. Barry Lynch, housing director of service in Meath County Council; and Mr. Liam Hanrahan, economic development and planning director of service in Galway County Council. On behalf of the CCMA, I welcome the opportunity to attend the Joint Committee on Disability Matters to discuss planning for inclusive communities.

The CCMA is the representative body for local authority management. Our membership includes the chief executives of each local authority, as well as the assistant chief executive of Dublin City Council. We operate through seven committees, each of which is concerned with specific policy areas. The responsibility and remit of the CCMA HBLU committee includes housing, planning, building control and management. Local authorities, as housing authorities, provide a range of homes and supports to those with a housing need, including people with disabilities. Local authorities work in partnership with approved housing bodies, AHBs, the charity sector and other stakeholders to assist individuals and families to ensure their accommodation needs are met via social housing or accommodation provided through subsidisation via the housing assistance payment, HAP, or the rental accommodation scheme, RAS.

From a housing supply perspective, the overall delivery of disabled persons housing is a key area of focus for the sector. As such, figures obtained from the Housing Agency indicate that a total of 2,472 allocations were made nationally in 2022. The allocations are broken down into four categories: physical, sensory, mental health and intellectual disability. The figures for the allocations under each category are outlined in the table provided to members.

The capital assistance scheme, CAS, provides a capital funding mechanism through the local authorities to AHBs for the delivery of accommodation, either by construction or acquisition, for priority groups such as elderly people, homeless persons and people with disabilities. The CAS is a valuable scheme and we encourage our AHB partners to utilise it to provide accommodation to meet housing needs. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has recently published figures for the CAS to quarter 3 of 2023, detailing that 52 units were completed and 217 units were acquired, which means 269 units were delivered.

Housing and disability steering groups have been established in all local authority areas. Membership of these steering groups consists of representatives from the HSE, disability service providers and housing service providers. The aim is to achieve a co-ordinated and integrated approach to meeting the housing needs of persons with a disability. The housing and disability steering groups are tasked with preparing a strategic plan for their local areas to develop specific local strategies to meet identified and emerging needs. These plans, along with the annual summary of social housing assessments, allow local authorities to plan more strategically for the housing needs of persons with disabilities and support the delivery of accommodation using all appropriate housing supply mechanisms. Housing and disability steering groups continue to have a key role as the forum for delivery of the strategy’s outcomes at local level.

We included six case studies from local authorities, including those in Galway, Meath and Wexford, in our written submission. They give details of initiatives that support the needs of people and they are included in the appendix.

I will move on to universal design. The adoption of the principle of universal design provides for greater sustainability of our housing stock, especially in the current circumstances of dramatically rising construction costs. It should be noted that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage remains the sanctioning authority in respect of the adopted design standards, funding and project approvals. A new design standard is being developed under the auspices of the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, with the participation of, among others, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the National Disability Authority, NDA, and Age Friendly Ireland, which will be a common standard for the use of universal design and universal design+. Meath County Council is carrying out a pilot project in Kells, where 30% of the units will have a universal design. This project is subject to planning approval and initial indications from the architects involved are that there will be a cost differential of circa 6.4% for these units.

Regarding housing supports for people with disabilities and older people, with funding from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, local authorities provided the following three separate grant schemes: the housing adaptation grant for older people and people with a disability - I will not go into the detail of that - the housing aid for older people grant, and the mobility aids grant scheme. The figures for the various grants show that 4,995 housing adaptation grants for older people and people with a disability were approved, which is the equivalent of €38 million nationally; 5,999 housing aid for older people grants were approved, costing €24,258,000 nationally; and 1,804 grants were approved under the mobility aids grants scheme, costing €6,375,000.

The CCMA welcomes the current review of the housing adaptation grants for older people and people with a disability scheme by the Department. The ability of the sector to co-fund these schemes is limited and can be a barrier to delivery. The CCMA would welcome additional Exchequer funding in this area. In addition, it is important to highlight that there are significant staffing requirements in the sector in this high demand area, as applications continue to increase year on year. Like all areas of housing development, construction inflation has hit this area, with difficulties arising in the availability of contractors to carry out the necessary work to meet the required standards. The ten-year period to 2023 indicates a significant retrofit cost of €644 million to private housing including local authority match funding. It should be noted that since the inception of the scheme in 2007, grants in excess of €1 billion have been paid out with 20% of this being funded by the local government sector. The CCMA believes this is a significant burden on the sector and supports the need for 100% Exchequer grant funding

The table provided to members indicates that cumulatively local authorities have drawn down the funding allocated, albeit with variations in individual years. The cumulative drawdown was 99.73%, which represents a total drawdown of €644 million.

The cumulative drawdown indicates a drawdown of 99.73% and total drawdown of €644 million. That is in excess of the allocated amount. Figures obtained from the Department regarding the housing adaptation grant for older people and the people with a disability scheme show that for the year 2022 €65 million in funding was allocated. As I said, €68 million was drawn down by the sector. These figures are based on 80% Exchequer funding and exclude the local authorities' contribution of 20%. The Department is currently in the process of finalising the figures for 2023. These figures do not include the cost of resources for local authorities to run the schemes.

In conclusion, all public bodies in Ireland have a responsibility under the public sector equality and human rights duty or public sector duty to promote equality, prevent discrimination and protect the human rights of their employees, customer service, service users and everyone affected by their policies and plans. In addition, relevant issues linked to the UNCRPD are identified and included as individual departmental action plans.

Commitments to implementing the UNCRPD, Disability Act 2005 and human rights and equality and related legislation are threaded through corporate plans, county development plans, equality and human rights frameworks and all of the council plans and strategies. In line with Housing for All, the CCMA is committed to delivering an appropriate range of housing and related support services in an integrated and sustainable manner which promotes equality of opportunity, individual choice and independent living for people with a disability. It is important to note that for those people with a disability the co-ordination of housing provision with the delivery of key health and social care support is paramount. The CCMA continues to work with the necessary stakeholders in that regard. We welcome the opportunity to engage in dialogue on these complex issues and are happy to answer any questions.