Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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The next Topical Issue is in the names of Deputies Seán Crowe and Dessie Ellis. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh was originally included but is no longer available. Both Deputies have four minutes in total to make their initial statements.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Is the Minister of State aware of the difficulties that are facing such families? I am hoping that in her reply, she will outline what she will do about this matter. These grants can have the potential to transform people's lives, but there is a long wait involved. In some cases in my constituency, people can wait for up to three years for such grants. I am aware that some local authorities have suspended these grants, so some counties are hit harder than others.

I wish to outline two cases in my constituency. One concerns Daniel who lives in Rossfield in Tallaght. He is on dialysis and his life revolves around getting his dialysis treatment. He needs a sterile room and downstairs toilet. There is a chair-lift in the house but he often does not make it.

It would transform the life of this man and that of his wife, Pauline, and their children if he could have his dialysis treatment in his own home. Despite that three years have passed his application for an extension has still not be approved.

I know of another woman in the area called Tracey, who is 20 stone in weight and has multiple cancers in respect of which she is being treated with steroids. This is affecting her bones and has led to the collapse of a couple of vertebrae in her back and her being unable to exercise, hence the weight gain. The difficulty Tracey has is that the stair lift in her home is not strong enough to support her weight, which means she has difficulty washing or using the toilet. Tracey relies on her children and elderly father to care for her and has been also waiting three years for a life-changing house adaptation.

How many families are in a similar situation? I have given two examples, which I am sure are repeated across the country.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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There are roughly 3,500 people on the housing waiting list that are elderly or have a disability, which is approximately 3.5% of those waiting for social housing in this State. Many people placed on waiting lists will be able to obtain rent allowance. While an offer of unstable housing is no solution and seeks only to perpetuate the poverty trap, it is something at a time when little housing is available. Unfortunately for older people and for those with a disability this is not an option. These people require secure and suitable housing which meets their specific needs.

Grants are made available to make housing more suitable to specific needs and in recognition of the priority which people with special needs must take in the housing system. As in the case of all other forms of public services, it is the people who need the most that are catered for by the State as the market is unwilling to do so. For this reason, the 40% cut to adaptation grants announced in March this year is devastating. This is the only option for many people who require specific tailored housing to meet their needs. These people cannot go elsewhere and this cut is a door slamming in their faces.

I recently spoke to a young mother of two children, Victoria Gonzales, who was badly hurt in an accident. She spent a long time away from her family recovering in hospital. Following painstaking rehabilitation Victoria was ready to return to some form of independent living and to care for her children despite her paralysis. Her courage and dedication facing down her misfortune was rewarded with no support from the State and she was forced to live in a cramped room in Beaumont hospital for almost two years. The Taoiseach personally promised her a home but nothing came of that August 2012 meeting. Until last week, Victoria had been 21 months in hospital away from her family and without any hope of change in her circumstances. However, following an article in The Sun, she has now been promised a home. Not every person in Victoria's circumstances will have their plight reported in an article in a national newspaper or have a chance meeting with a Taoiseach. Some people do not have the strength or courage which Victoria had to push forward and claim her rights.

Housing need has never been so high or severe. At one point, a medical priority was a good signifier of a person being housed soon. In some areas, this is now relatively meaningless. I deal with priority cases all of the time, many of which involve people who cannot go on in their current circumstances but somehow manage to scrape through their days. This is not discretionary spending; it is essential spending. It is not a pot that should be limited by over-zealous accounts but a fund to ensure those who need the most get the least they deserve, a secure home.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I thank Deputies Crowe and Ellis for raising this matter.

As Minister with responsibility for housing, I am keenly aware of the challenges we face in providing housing supports to a range of vulnerable groups. The problems facing the State's finances, which necessitate reducing public expenditure to sustainable levels, are impacting on capital programmes across the entire public service. My Department's housing capital programme is no exception. Regrettably, these steps are necessary to bring stability to the public finances. As a result, capital spending on housing programmes in 2013 is down on last year.

Within these constraints, I am determined to make the best use of the limited budget and to target those most in need. Accordingly, the social housing supply initiatives funded from the housing capital programme are now almost entirely focussed on meeting the particular housing needs of the elderly, people with a disability and the homeless. Approximately €120 million is being dedicated to this important programme in 2013. New social housing supply is now largely delivered through the leasing of properties to augment the smaller numbers coming from the traditional capital funded construction programmes. I expect some 5,000 will be provided through this route in 2013.

I am also focussing on improving the quality and standard of the 130,000 social rented units. This will be done through a range of measures including regeneration, estate-wide remedial works and energy retrofitting of older houses and apartments. This year, I brought in a new measure, with funding of €10 million, which will specifically target older properties and involves the insulation of attics and walls, draught-proofing of windows and doors and the fitting of heating controls. Last month, as part of the Government's investment in infrastructure and jobs, I announced a €50 million insulation programme, which will target the 25,000 least energy efficient local authority houses and bring tangible benefits to these homeowners, in terms of fuel savings and comfort levels.

I am conscious that substantial grant funding was provided for improving and adapting private houses in recent times. During the past two years, almost 22,000 householders benefitted under the schemes. This year, I allocated 12.4% of the housing budget, some €34.2 million, to the grant schemes as compared with 13.2% in 2012. That said, there is no denying the fact that the actual financial allocation has decreased in line with a reducing capital budget. Allocations across all 34 city and county councils were made in as transparent and fair a way as possible. Between them, at the start of the year local authorities had contractual commitments in respect of approved grants totalling €18 million. Historically, local authorities have been encouraged to maintain continuity in terms of approving and paying grants. Commitments carried forward into the new financial year have always had first call on the available funding. This year, each authority was allocated the full amount of their contractual commitments and the balance of the available funding was allocated on the basis of each authority's share of the new applications on hand in January 2013. As such, it was a completely fair and transparent system. I believe this to be an equitable way of apportioning the funding, although I appreciate this approach has resulted in lower than expected allocations for some authorities.

I accept that particular difficulties are arising in some local authorities and I am taking steps to address this. I have set aside a small contingency to deal with these and I approved additional allocations totalling €1.2 million for 13 local authorities. Dublin City Council and South Dublin County Council applied for additional funding from this reserve and were notified of supplementary allocations of €118,063 and €126,111, respectively, on 22 April 2013, bringing the councils' overall allocation for 2013 to €5,050,383 and €1,340,098, respectively.

Through active management of my Department's overall housing budget for 2013, I am now in a position to allocate additional funding to two priority areas. First, there is a pressing need to augment the supply of special needs housing to meet the needs of people with a disability. Together with my colleague, Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, I have published an implementation framework for the national strategy for people with disabilities. As a sign of my commitment to that implementation policy, I am allocating additional funding to support a call for proposals from local authorities, aimed at the acquisition of additional units of accommodation for persons with a disability. My Department asked local authorities to submit proposals in this regard by 16 July and I intend to announce a list of approved projects as soon as possible afterwards.

Second, I agree with the Deputies that additional funding is needed to address urgently needed adaptations and fittings that can facilitate people to remain in their own homes. I will be allocating additional funding to the grants measure. I hope to be in a position to notify local authorities of their increased allocations by the end of the month. I have managed to secure some additional funding, which I hope will help to address the specific cases raised by the Deputies and others throughout the country.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome that the Minister of State has secured additional funding for this area. It would be useful if the Minister of State could at some stage provide the House with information on waiting lists for adaptation grants in each of the local authorities. I know from other Deputies that in some areas none is being provided. It would be terrible if a person with a serious illness had to move from one county to another to obtain a better outcome, in particular a person in need of dialysis who must have his or her treatment in hospital rather than at home. What is being done in this area, in terms of the cost of caring for a person in hospital versus adaptation of his or her home, is not cost effective.

Funding home adaptations could act as a stimulus in the sense that these are shovel-ready projects which could begin tomorrow, thus creating employment and generating money for the economy.

There is a crisis and I ask the Minister of State to produce some solutions. In my local authority area people are waiting for up to three years, and they may be waiting longer in other local authority areas. Those affected are in poor health and these delays are having negative psychological and physical effects on them and their families. While I welcome the additional funding provided, we must wait and see the extent to which it will transform the difficult circumstances in which many families find themselves.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I too welcome the additional funding to which the Minister of State referred. It is clear that small but essential adaptations, such as the installation of ramps and hand-rails and the widening of doorways, have been placed on a lower priority list by Dublin City Council. In a number of cases, people are refusing to allow relatives to leave rehabilitation care or hospitals because they cannot have a ramp installed or a doorway widened to enable them to have access their homes. While larger works to adapt homes will not be done in the current economic climate, people should at least be able to access their homes. Rather than having adaptations carried out, people are being told they will be placed on a transfer list and may secure a place elsewhere when one becomes available. This pulls people out of their communities and away from their families and neighbours who have helped and stood by them. This approach is to be deplored. We must not go down that road. It should be possible to look after people leaving hospital - for example, those who are on dialysis or who are grossly overweight. The current position is unacceptable.

Dublin City Council has indicated it has spent all the funding available for adaptation grants in 2013, primarily on priority cases. The council already has another list prepared for next year. It is not possible that this list of works will be completed, given the large number of priority cases. I ask the Minister of State to press local authorities to carry out minor works that would allow people to leave hospital, access their homes and enjoy some quality of life.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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As I stated previously, I am reviewing the scheme to ensure the limits are correct and it is being used in the best way possible. While maximum spending limits apply in the schemes - the limit is up to €30,000 in one of the schemes - the average cost of works is much lower than the maximum limits. This indicates that local authorities are showing a good deal of flexibility. We have asked the local authorities not to suspend the processing of applications in case urgent cases arise. We want them to have a rolling system for processing applications rather than stopping schemes when they begin to run out of money. We also asked them to do this at the end of last year because there will always be cases that must be prioritised.

As I indicated, we have some additional moneys that can be allocated this year. As the Deputy noted, there are two funding streams, one for local authority houses and the other for private houses. I accept Deputy Crowe's point on the need to get a handle on whether the system is fair across local authorities and whether some local authorities have larger waiting lists than others. We hope the review will provide more information in that regard.