Mr. Gerard Scully:

To respond to Deputy Ó Broin in the context of increasing local authority funding and the point that people have to reapply, I suspect there are also people falling off waiting lists. If people apply but do not get funding and do not reapply, they are left in the homes and they are actually falling off the lists because nobody contacts them. That is a real problem.

Senator Murnane O'Connor referred to funding running out. There has to be guaranteed funding for the year. If there is not and if money runs out, people are then in a race. When people contact Age Action, we tell them to get in as early in the new year as possible and even to wait until the new year to apply because they are then coming into the stream of funding. If they apply in the second half of the year, they are competing from a waiting list. The funding needs to be guaranteed for the year and that is a major priority.

We also need to remember that the disability grants cover different age cohorts and are not just for older people. There are other grant schemes, such as the home improvement scheme for older people, and most of the calls we receive are actually about home improvements rather than home adaptations. That may be because the level of grants is higher under the home improvement scheme rather than the home adaptation scheme. The work that needs to be done often comes under the former rather than the latter. There is also the mobility age grant, which people do not know about and do not apply for. That lack of information and knowledge among older people is an issue.