Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

On housing adaptation grants, 13% of the people who live in County Cork have at least one disability. This is an important issue, nationally and locally. Last year, 228 households in Cork city were on the local authority's waiting list for adaptations to private houses.

Of those households, 142 were of people with disabilities, 44 were of people with mobility issues and 42 were of elderly people. I am concerned that the increase in the grant that the council received will be wiped out, or more than wiped out, by construction inflation. The upper limit of the grant needs to be increased. If councils had their own building units in order that the work could be done on a public basis, at good quality and not-for-profit rates, it would be a big improvement.

On housing and disability, some people with disabilities are still being asked to bid on the choice-based letting system for social housing. If they refuse, they lose their place on the list for a year. That is a very tough policy overall but it is particularly unfair on people with disabilities. The council might say that it knows their needs and is only making offers that tally with those needs, but how can a council official say that? Surely it is the person with the disability who must have the final say. That rule should change for people with disabilities. It is not fair.

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