Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. No one is as proud of his or her right to own a home as the Irish, and long may that right last. People tend to rent accommodation or avail of alternatives in many other countries but Irish people, because of our history and the difficulties experienced by previous generations, regard home ownership as important. We have a proud record in that respect.

The issue of disabilities is dear to my heart. We need to re-examine our approach to housing for people with disabilities. The most common difficulty raised in my constituency office is the need of desperate people to have alterations made to their houses to cope with a disability. They include people who have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis or have developed cancer, bone problems and so forth. The current structure for dealing with such people leaves much to be desired.

Although provision in some counties is better than in others, it is still not sufficient in this era of the Celtic tiger when there has never been more money in the kitty. We have made a commitment to have a national policy towards disabled people but when we get down to the nitty-gritty of using council and Health Service Executive structures it can often take months to secure approval for a grant to allow a person to proceed with home alterations. In some cases, applicants are placed on a waiting list for a housing grant which is, in any case, only partial. While I accept people should not be allocated disabled person's grants on grounds such as age, those who qualify on the basis of medical opinion, preferably one provided by their general practitioner who will know them best, should quickly be given grant aid of 90% or 100%.

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