Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate my colleagues, Deputies Willie O'Dea and Frank O'Rourke, on bringing forth this timely and important legislation. As public representatives, this is an issue about which we are frequently contacted in our constituency offices. This is about some of the most vulnerable in our society, some of whom are at home but ill while others are in hospital or in nursing homes. This proposal seeks to speed up the adaptation grants processing system which is broken in the sense that processing is done at various stages. This is tedious and difficult for families who may be already faced with the difficult task of trying to get a loved one who was ill or had a stroke home from hospital. These grants are important to these families. They enable people to live independently or at home in familiar surroundings, where we know people recover and make the best progress, in a lot of cases. Also, enabling people to live at home is less costly to the State. Bureaucracy has taken over and, perhaps, gone mad in relation to housing adaptation applications. Local authority administration of applications is often delayed by outstanding occupational therapy reports, quotations from a builder and income statements. While all this work is necessary, this proposal means it can be done more efficiently and faster and, thus, families will get a quick response and can then move to get their loved one home from a hospital or nursing home. These families not only have to care for the person who is sick or has a disability, they have to bear the expenses incurred in doing so.

I support this Bill and I again thank my colleagues for this tangible and practical initiative that will be welcomed across the country.

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