Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am trying to inform some of the Members and will conclude on this. Some €80 million was being spent in 2011. The Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, said on radio that the grant was actually being increased and that the criteria were not really being changed but being made more focused. That is absolute rubbish. The Government has halved the amount of money allocated to local authorities, whether Members opposite like it. I have all of the figures for each county to hand. The Government has also made it far more difficult for people to avail of the grant and this has increased the amount the elderly and the disabled must pay towards the adaptation of their housing. Perhaps the Leader might state why the Minister of State did not appear before the Dáil or the Seanad to announce these measures. Why was it left until new year's eve for a faceless official in her Department to send a circular to every local authority in the country to state the scheme had been changed drastically?