Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to have an opportunity to speak on this very important topic. I thank Fianna Fáil and Deputy O'Dea for giving us this opportunity. The housing adaptation grant is very important for people who need it. None of us knows the minute or the hour when someone belonging to us would become ill or disabled and it is very important that people can access the housing adaptation grant and get a little bit of help through this. However, there are difficulties. We do not have enough funding for bigger issues, such as somebody who wants an extension. I know of several cases and in one case the husband is in a wheelchair and the wife is very incapacitated. They have been waiting for a number of weeks for an occupational therapist.

I honestly believe the Government is the best crowd in the world for the bush in the gap. There is a problem with people accessing what the Government tells them they are entitled to. If they were keeping a thieving heifer out of a field they would have no bother because it is now impossible to access some of the services people are told they are entitled to. This is no fault of Kerry County Council because it is one of its best sections and it does tremendous work in giving people what it can but its money is limited. When people ask for a bathroom, shower or stair lift it is turned around very quickly because it is small money but when it increases to €15,000 for €20,000 people are waiting for a year and a half. This is too long because year and a half for an invalid or someone in trouble is too long. The answer we get from the local authority is that it does not have enough funding. Will the Government please address this issue? We need more funding for this grant.

An issue giving people an awful lot of difficulty is that the age for eligibility for grant aid for the elderly has been increased to 66 years. Previously the local authority had discretion to turn it around and do something for someone aged 59 or 60 who had a leaking roof, whether there was a door or a window falling in. We say we want to keep people in their homes for as long as possible but over the past three or four years when people over the age of 60 look for some help they have severe difficulty because the council cannot or will not give it to them until they reach the age of 66 years.

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