Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. It was also dealt with today under Question No. 443 in the name of her party colleague, Deputy Wall. I am pleased to have the opportunity to give her an update on the scheme. As the Deputy knows, the scheme was started in 1982 and is funded under the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government to undertake an emergency programme to improve the housing conditions of elderly persons living alone in unfit or unsanitary accommodation. In 2000 the scheme was extended to include the provision of suitable heating systems where found necessary to meet the needs of elderly persons. Since then the direction of the scheme has shifted very much from emergency work and much of its resources are now concentrated on larger projects.

The community care departments of the health boards operate the scheme using various mechanisms to carry out the work, including contractors, FÁS and a grant-based approach whereby the applicant employs the contractor. The scheme has dealt with more than 56,000 cases since it started. Just under 2,000 jobs have been completed in the first six months of this year. There has been an unprecedented level of demand for the provision of heating systems since it was introduced in February 2000, with 3,954 applicants provided with such facilities to the end of 2003.

The allocations to the boards are determined by a task force from the funding available and are based, not on the geographical spread of the population, but on the statistical returns received from the health boards showing the level of activity within the area. It is not based on population and, accordingly, some health boards do better than others. It is based on returns showing the numbers on the waiting lists, the number of applications on hands and the estimated cost of these applications. Boards, in turn, allocate the funding available to the county divisions within their areas. First round allocations were notified to the boards on 21 January 2004 and a second round allocation for 2004 will shortly be determined and notified to them by the task force, bringing the total to €11.6 million for the year. The original allocation was approximately €11 million, so the second is only €600,000, nationally.

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