Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Crowe and Ellis for raising this matter.

As Minister with responsibility for housing, I am keenly aware of the challenges we face in providing housing supports to a range of vulnerable groups. The problems facing the State's finances, which necessitate reducing public expenditure to sustainable levels, are impacting on capital programmes across the entire public service. My Department's housing capital programme is no exception. Regrettably, these steps are necessary to bring stability to the public finances. As a result, capital spending on housing programmes in 2013 is down on last year.

Within these constraints, I am determined to make the best use of the limited budget and to target those most in need. Accordingly, the social housing supply initiatives funded from the housing capital programme are now almost entirely focussed on meeting the particular housing needs of the elderly, people with a disability and the homeless. Approximately €120 million is being dedicated to this important programme in 2013. New social housing supply is now largely delivered through the leasing of properties to augment the smaller numbers coming from the traditional capital funded construction programmes. I expect some 5,000 will be provided through this route in 2013.

I am also focussing on improving the quality and standard of the 130,000 social rented units. This will be done through a range of measures including regeneration, estate-wide remedial works and energy retrofitting of older houses and apartments. This year, I brought in a new measure, with funding of €10 million, which will specifically target older properties and involves the insulation of attics and walls, draught-proofing of windows and doors and the fitting of heating controls. Last month, as part of the Government's investment in infrastructure and jobs, I announced a €50 million insulation programme, which will target the 25,000 least energy efficient local authority houses and bring tangible benefits to these homeowners, in terms of fuel savings and comfort levels.

I am conscious that substantial grant funding was provided for improving and adapting private houses in recent times. During the past two years, almost 22,000 householders benefitted under the schemes. This year, I allocated 12.4% of the housing budget, some €34.2 million, to the grant schemes as compared with 13.2% in 2012. That said, there is no denying the fact that the actual financial allocation has decreased in line with a reducing capital budget. Allocations across all 34 city and county councils were made in as transparent and fair a way as possible. Between them, at the start of the year local authorities had contractual commitments in respect of approved grants totalling €18 million. Historically, local authorities have been encouraged to maintain continuity in terms of approving and paying grants. Commitments carried forward into the new financial year have always had first call on the available funding. This year, each authority was allocated the full amount of their contractual commitments and the balance of the available funding was allocated on the basis of each authority's share of the new applications on hand in January 2013. As such, it was a completely fair and transparent system. I believe this to be an equitable way of apportioning the funding, although I appreciate this approach has resulted in lower than expected allocations for some authorities.

I accept that particular difficulties are arising in some local authorities and I am taking steps to address this. I have set aside a small contingency to deal with these and I approved additional allocations totalling €1.2 million for 13 local authorities. Dublin City Council and South Dublin County Council applied for additional funding from this reserve and were notified of supplementary allocations of €118,063 and €126,111, respectively, on 22 April 2013, bringing the councils' overall allocation for 2013 to €5,050,383 and €1,340,098, respectively.

Through active management of my Department's overall housing budget for 2013, I am now in a position to allocate additional funding to two priority areas. First, there is a pressing need to augment the supply of special needs housing to meet the needs of people with a disability. Together with my colleague, Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, I have published an implementation framework for the national strategy for people with disabilities. As a sign of my commitment to that implementation policy, I am allocating additional funding to support a call for proposals from local authorities, aimed at the acquisition of additional units of accommodation for persons with a disability. My Department asked local authorities to submit proposals in this regard by 16 July and I intend to announce a list of approved projects as soon as possible afterwards.

Second, I agree with the Deputies that additional funding is needed to address urgently needed adaptations and fittings that can facilitate people to remain in their own homes. I will be allocating additional funding to the grants measure. I hope to be in a position to notify local authorities of their increased allocations by the end of the month. I have managed to secure some additional funding, which I hope will help to address the specific cases raised by the Deputies and others throughout the country.

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