Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and his officials for attending. I want to home in on local authorities and their housing adaptation and mobility aid schemes. First, I give great credit to the staff of Galway County Council for the way in which they administer the schemes. The important thing is that they administer them in a way that is practical.

I understand the Department is currently finalising a review of these schemes in terms of the income thresholds and the amount of grants that may be available. One of the things that is very tough on people with disabilities is that if somebody in the house has a disability, the income of the entire household is taken into account even though the only person who will benefit from the adaptation is the person with a disability. Why can we not have a situation where it is the income of the person with a disability that is means tested? The current system often drives people over the maximum threshold, of €60,000, beyond which the person will not get a grant. When we talk about the cost of living with a disability it is important to concentrate on the person with the disability. That is the person who should be assessed in terms of both disability and income. If a sibling is living in the house as he or she cannot get his or her own house but is earning money, that is taken into account, which is totally unfair. If the Department is doing a review, I would like to see that issue addressed.

The other issue I am concerned about is that if a new house needs to be adapted for a person who has a disability, the maximum cost that is allowed towards adaptation of the house is €30,000. That amount is not anywhere near what is needed nowadays. To put on an extension consisting of a ground floor bedroom and an en suite wet room onto an existing house would cost probably three times that figure. We need to take a realistic approach to the amount of funding.

Reference has been made to construction costs and to people with a disability, who are at the heart of this. At present, the Department provides a certain amount of money and local authorities also provides funding. If the Department is increasing the amount of money it is providing, it should take into account that local authorities may not be able to afford their commitment. We need to adjust that in order to increase the level of funding to local authorities. If that is not done, we will be compounding a problem instead of solving it.

I ask the Minister of State to reply on those three points.