John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Finneran. I want to ask him about the schemes administered by local authorities for housing aid for different groups, mostly for elderly or disabled people. Within the past 12 months responsibility for a number of schemes that previously rested with the former health boards has been transferred to local authorities. Those schemes have been combined with a number of existing schemes run by local authorities and as a result, last year local authorities were inundated with applications for funding under the schemes.

I raise this on the Adjournment due to the fact that in Kilkenny, the area with which I am most familiar, there are a number of outstanding difficulties for people who are trying to get funding to provide necessary improvements to their homes. The current position in the housing department of Kilkenny County Council is that it will provide funding for repairs to roof damage and similar, related problems, but if elderly people have problems with poor windows or lack of heating, the local authority cannot address them this year. A standard letter issued by the county council states that this year's funding will largely be spent on roof repairs and that any repairs to windows or the cost of installation of heating cannot be covered because it does not have the money for it.

I note that within the past week a parliamentary question was put down in the Lower House about the current position with this funding. In his reply, the Minister stated that his Department is liaising with local authorities with regard to how much funding will be allocated. What is the position with that? It should have been concluded by now. There is a huge backlog of people in the system who have been approved for work to be carried out, but local authorities cannot given them the money to complete the work as the funding is not available. A number of local authorities are allowing people to do the work. People can borrow from the credit union or elsewhere and the money will be repaid when the grant is paid. However, the people seeking this funding are either disabled, elderly or ill — some are in all three categories — and many of them are not in a position to get a loan from a credit union or any other institution. It is not the best time to be seeking loans from any institution.

Perhaps the Minister will shed light on this issue. I refer specifically to the essential repairs grant, the disability grant and the housing aid for older people grant. Will there be an increase in funding for those schemes this year given that there is such demand for them? When will the funding for local authorities be announced? Is the Government serious about tackling the backlog that exists as a result of the amalgamation of the schemes that were previously operated by the health boards with those operated by local authorities?