Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

I am sharing time with Deputy Ciarán Lynch and I propose to speak for two minutes.

Cork County Council announced last week that it would be cutting a range of grants designed to help people to make modifications to their homes, namely, the essential repairs grant, the mobility aids grant, the housing adaptation grant and the housing aid for the elderly grant. The reason is that it is not in a budgetary position to deal with the number of applications being made. The county council has stated that where possible it will try to process the disabled person's grant. That specifically relates to Cork County Council's northern division.

We are asking that the Minister consider an increase in the funding stream. The Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, will tell the House there has been an increase year on year in the overall allocation for 2008 and the total amount disbursed in 2007. The announcement in February by the then Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, caused the other schemes announced to become so successful that hundreds of people applied for them. That created an expectation. We now find in the northern division of Cork County Council that there is a lack of funding to meet the schemes of which many vulnerable and older people are in need to carry out necessary modifications to their homes. I call on the Minister to see if there is any way to provide an increase in the funding stream.

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