Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are a few points. Ensuring Independent Living and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was one of the first reports the committee did back in March 2022, which is two years ago. Two of the recommendations, 5.6 and 5.7, were about the housing adaptation grants. One of those referred to a situation when somebody from decongregated settings or who had additional needs, acquired or otherwise, was moving in with family and they looked for a grant to provide the proper facilities for that member. The first thing that would be done is that the household income would be taken into account and then the family would get no grant. We asked for that to be looked at. We also submitted it in a number of the pre-budget submissions that the committee made in 2022 and 2023 because we saw the challenges that were faced. That certainly came up in the committee.

The Minister in his opening statement referred to the €220 million available under the CAS programme for 2023. Was all that money spent? The issue we see is that some of the applications submitted by service providers were made. Then they had to go to the local authority, the Department and then the HSE for approval and then they would not draw down the funding. There is another issue. It is policy from the Department, and also from some of the service providers for people with disabilities and approved housing bodies as well, to encourage people to get on the social housing list because that would be a mechanism to get CAS funding. Recently, we had some detailed discussions with a family I was representing with one of the service providers. As a way of accessing funding to provide accommodation for their family member, they were encouraged by the service providers to get on the social housing list first and then they would be able to access funding. However, when they applied to the social housing body, the local authority, to get on the social housing list, they were refused social housing because they had been paying no rent in the previous 12 months. They had been living in sheltered accommodation. Due to pressures and so on, they went back to the family member. The family was then encouraged to go on the social housing list and we thought it was a formality. However, the local authority has come back and refused the application because-----