Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the students, who are very welcome to Leinster House.

I acknowledge the work of Ms Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, who worked on this motion with us.

As Deputy Berry pointed out, we are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. We are telling the Russian Federation and the British Government that international laws and international agreements are in place and, as a State, we are asking those countries to abide by them. It is only just and proper then that we, as a State, also comply with international law. One of the principles of the UNCRPD is that the people concerned should have the equal right to housing and to live within their own communities regardless of their disability. The housing aid for older people scheme, the mobility grant aid scheme and the housing adaptation grant for people with a disability are key to that. These schemes allow people to continue living independently in their own homes in their own communities for far longer. It is imperative that we facilitate this. The reality is that the grants rates have not increased in recent years. These rates today do not reflect current building costs. The income thresholds also need to be modernised and updated. I am glad the Minister has listened to us, acknowledged this point and is determined to address this issue.

I will give one example of what we are talking about. A constituent of mine has applied for the housing adaptation grant. The person concerned is an amputee and resides in a two-storey house. The only income this person has is social welfare. An application was made for the award of the grant to Galway County Council, which was successful. The maximum rate for the housing adaptation grant was awarded, which is €30,000. This person was, believe it or not, lucky enough to get contractors to price the work. I say that because one of the biggest problems faced in respect of all these grant schemes, and especially in the context of the supports for older people and the grant for those with a disability, is trying to get a contractor to price the work required. It is nearly impossible because of the bureaucracy involved in the process. The low rate of the grant also means many contractors are not interested in this work anymore. The result is that there is a big problem in getting price estimates for this type of work in the first place. In the case I am speaking about, however, my constituent did secure estimated prices for the work. These varied from €48,000 to €60,000. This was more than three months ago and the likelihood, given the way the costs have increased, is that the price has probably risen since.

My constituent, who had a small amount of savings, went to the credit union in Ballinasloe, explained the predicament and the credit union was prepared to offer a loan of €8,000. The difficulty is that this person cannot make up the remaining balance of €10,000. Therefore, in the context of providing people with a grant of €30,000, it would be as well to refuse people's applications as to give them that amount of money. This applicant does not have, and cannot access, the resources to secure the outstanding €10,000 required to put a toilet and bathroom and a bedroom downstairs to allow continued residence. This situation is forcing this person onto the chaotic housing waiting lists, with 60,000 people already on them and that number is, sadly, rising. It makes no sense. We should be trying to facilitate people to remain in their own houses rather than putting additional pressure on our housing lists.

What is perverse about this situation is that those of us who are members of the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands heard evidence two weeks' ago that some local authorities are actually handing back money that has been provided for these grants annually. This is happening because it is a co-financing scheme, requiring a contribution to be made by the local authorities. Family Carers Ireland, FCI, would be interested in acting as a co-financing agent in this respect to ensure that money is not sent back from the local authorities annually. In fairness to the Government, it is providing resources. All those resources should be utilised. I ask the Minister to engage with the FCI in this regard.

I was speaking about the grant for people with a disability. I could spend all day giving the Minister other examples of similar situations in this regard. The Minister is well aware of the issues and this was reflected in his and the Government's response. Additionally, though, we have the housing aid for older people grant scheme. These grants are intended for those trying to adapt a house to meet the needs of an older person. The Minister knows we have a serious housing crisis and yet many of the adaptations being done to houses are being done under the disability grant scheme or the older person's grant scheme to make a family-type house suitable for an older person to live in. We are talking about three- and four-bedroom family-type homes close to schools and services and so forth being adapted with public money to make them suitable for people who may have mobility issues or for older people. These are houses that are too big and costly for people to heat. The people concerned could do with much smaller accommodation, but that is not available now. Particularly in the private sector, we must explore making one- and two-bedroom homes available in our villages, towns and cities. These homes should be close to existing services needed by older people and close as well to bus routes. These would be homes that would allow older people to downsize. The Minister is committed to downsizing, but this process will only work if older people have feasible alternative options to embrace. Such options are not there now. We must support the development of one- and two-bedroom cluster-type housing developments for older people to allow them to downsize their accommodation. That would, in turn, release family homes back onto the market and help the general housing situation.

In tandem with that approach, we must also address the issue of security of tenure. Older people selling their homes would then buy these one- or two-bedroom homes or, as would make far more sense, enter into a long-term lease. We must, however, bring in laws that will provide security of tenure, especially for older people in the cluster-type accommodation I referred to, to ensure residents are guaranteed a fixed rent for the time they require that accommodation. If these two measures could be implemented, some of the pressure could be removed from this grant scheme. Family homes that are desperately needed could also be released right across the country.

The final issue I raise with the Minister concerns the green agenda and local authority houses in this context. There are delays in carrying out these types of adaptations in local authority houses for those with disabilities and-or older people. In some local authorities, it is taking four years to have these adaptations completed. When these adaptations are being done, then, they are not being completed to the current environmental standards. Heating systems are being replaced with oil-fired central heating systems. This means we will have to go back and retrofit those homes with non-fossil fuel heating systems. We urgently need to retrofit our local authority housing stock.

On this issue of retrofitting, Project Ireland 2040 committed to retrofitting 45,000 homes annually from 2021 onwards. This year, the Government has committed to retrofitting just 22,000 homes, a target that falls significantly short of what has already been committed to and for which the funding is already in place. Only 4,500 of those homes are inhabited by people living in conditions of fuel poverty. Even those other homes are reliant on retrofitting grants which are not yet available. The grants were already announced by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, but they are not yet available. Therefore, while we are all talking about climate change now, talk is cheap. Retrofitting must be delivered, but it is not happening. The targets have been reduced by this Government and even those abysmal targets are not going to be achieved this year. This is an indictment of where we need to be going as a country and a society.

I commend the motion to the House and I thank the Government for its support.

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