Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I hope that the young woman to whom Senator Burke referred is doing well and that her health improves. I hope also that the situation improves for her from a range of different perspectives.

On behalf of the Government and my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, who has responsibility in this area, I wish to highlight that one of the key aims of the Department is to ensure that the housing needs of all citizens, including people with disabilities, are met and that rights to equal treatment, in terms of how those housing needs are met, are upheld.

The Disability Act 2005 provides a statutory basis for making public services accessible by placing obligations on public bodies. These obligations include ensuring their buildings, services and information are available and accessible to people with disabilities.One of the specific requirements is that each local authority must appoint an access officer under section 26. This function is to provide or arrange for and co-ordinate the provision of assistance and guidance to people with disabilities in accessing services in local authority areas irrespective of where they live.

In addition to the statutory access officers, many local authorities also have a combination of equality officers, liaison officers, partnership co-ordinators, equality action teams and social inclusion units. In order to support local authorities, the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, provides a range of advice and guidance on the delivery of services for people with disabilities, fosters best practice in that regard and operates the access officer network.

The Government's national housing strategy for people with a disabilities, which was published in 2011, sets out a broad framework for the delivery of housing for people with disabilities through mainstream housing policy. The vision of the strategy is to facilitate access for people with disabilities to the appropriate range of housing and related support services, delivered in an integrated and sustainable manner that promotes equality of opportunity, individual choice and independent living. As part of the implementation of the strategy, dedicated local housing advice centres are being developed at local authority level that will provide integrated and accessible advice and information to support all people with their housing and related support needs. These centres will complement the various other information and support services that are available to people with a disability at a local authority level who may wish to discuss their housing circumstances, be they local authority tenants or those living in another setting.

The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government provides funding to local authorities for various social housing supports, including adaptations and extensions to the social housing stock to meet the needs of local authority tenants with disabilities or to address serious overcrowding. Funding provided by the Department meets 90% of the cost of such works, with each local authority providing the remaining 10%. The Department is liaising with all local authorities in respect of requirements for 2015 in this regard. The administration of the funding locally is a matter for each local authority, including decisions on the projects to be implemented.

I assure Senator Burke I will ensure that this information finds its way to the Minister. The circumstances outlined by the Senator are difficult. It is unconscionable that a young woman in such circumstances would wait so many years, given the fact that it appears that grant approval has been given to the family. While I do not know all of the details, the Minister and I will do our best to engage with the local authority to ensure that the family gets the service to which it is entitled.