Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for tabling this motion and for their valuable contributions. As set out in the programme for Government, Our Shared Future, the Government believes the State has a fundamental role in enabling older people and people with disabilities to remain living independently in their own homes. The opportunity to discuss and debate this very important issue this morning is welcome.

While the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has some concerns about some elements of the motion, for example, to ensure grants are linked to the cost of the specific works as a percentage of the costs, given the uncontrolled nature of the financial commitment, the Government is not opposing the motion as its aim is to support properly and rightly the housing adaptation grants for older people and people with disability. Therefore, I will provide an update to the Dáil on progress to date as well as plans to address the issues raised.

The suite of housing adaptation grants for older people and people with disability are for private home owners and are 80% funded by the Exchequer with a 20% contribution from the resources of the local authorities. There are three distinct grant types being delivered through local authorities: the housing adaptation grant for people with a disability scheme provides grants of up to €30,000 to assist people with a disability to have necessary adaptations, repairs or improvement works carried out to their homes; the housing aids for older people scheme provides grants of up to €8,000 to assist older people living in poor housing conditions to have the necessary repairs or improvements carried out; the mobility aids grant scheme is available to fast-track grants of up €6,000 to cover a basic suite of works to address the mobility problems of a member of a household. Demand for these grants has been consistently high since they were introduced in 2007. There is a programme for Government commitment to increase funding and make the grants more accessible.

In 2021 there were 10,283 grants delivered at a total cost of almost €71 million. More than €81 million is allocated for the grants in 2022. These figures include the 20% local authority contribution. Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland was launched in September 2021 and established a number of targets to increase the supply of private, social and affordable homes and increase overall affordability. In total 300,000 new homes are targeted by 2030 of which 90,000 will be social homes, 54,000 will be affordable, purchase or cost rental and the remaining 166,000 or so will be private market housing. The plan promotes compact, sustainable urban growth and will be supported by funding of €4 billion per year. In particular the housing needs of older people are addressed in the plan, the objective of which is to ensure that older people will be afforded increased housing options to allow them to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible, or to access age-friendly housing. Furthermore it commits to ensuring that affordable, quality housing with an appropriate mix of housing design types provided within social housing, including universally designed units is available to everyone in Irish society including those with disabilities and older people.

Housing for All commits to increasing the housing options available to older people to facilitate ageing in place with dignity and independence, delivering an appropriate range of housing and related supports services in an integrated sustainable manner which will promote equality of opportunity, individual choice and independent living for people with a disability. In January 2022, as signalled in the Housing for All, the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027 was launched. The new strategy sets out a vision for the co-operation and collaboration of Departments, State agencies and others in delivering housing and the related supports for disabled people over the next five years. This new strategy will operate within the framework of Housing for All and places a greater emphasis on independent living and community inclusion. Implementation of the plan will be based on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Housing for All policy objective to make more efficient use of existing housing stock includes the development of a national policy on right-sizing and to explore options to support and incentivise right-sizing on a voluntary basis. Work is under way through the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to inform and progress the development of national policy on right-sizing this year.

There has also been increasing support for the adaptation of local authority homes with funding increasing year on year to help meet the needs of local authority tenants. Funding under the disabled persons grant scheme has increased from a level of more than €15 million in 2019 to almost €24 million in 2021 for which local authorities were approved funding for all works that they advised would be completed that year. This gave local authorities an opportunity to clear backlogs and carry out more costly works such as extensions. For 2022 allocations have been in excess of €23 million which is considered sufficient to meet the demands of all local authorities with a further contingency available to address any shortfall in commitments already in place or urgent cases which may arise.

In regard to the retrofitting scheme the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has in 2022 a total of €267 million allocated for the SEAI residential and community schemes this year. This is highest ever allocation for the schemes. The investment will support almost 27,000 home energy upgrades, including more than 8,600 home upgrades to a building energy rating, BER, of B2 which is a near doubling of B2 output over 2021. Since the launch of the new supports in February this year demand for the SEAI retrofit schemes has been exceptionally high with a very significant increase in the number of applications to date, when compared with the same period in 2021. This strong pipeline of projects is expected to translate into delivery in the months to come.

I have outlined a flavour of the intensive work under way and planned, which will make an extraordinary difference to the lives both of older and disabled people, in particular the review under way on the suite of adaptation grants for older people and people with disability. The points raised in the motion before us today are welcome. This is a welcome contribution in addressing some of the issues affecting grant applicants. I believe this debate today will prove invaluable to that review. Careful consideration will be given to the views expressed here today, as part of that review.

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