Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator McGreehan for raising this very important issue. I can imagine how emotive this is in County Louth. She has clearly articulated the concerns and has been very fair in her approach to this matter. I have been provided with this response on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage who sends his apologies.

Funding to local authorities under the housing adaptation grants for older people and people with a disability to assist people in private houses to make their accommodation more suitable for their needs comes from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.The detailed administration of the scheme, including assessment, approval, prioritisation and apportionment, is the responsibility of local authorities. In 2022, almost €86 million in funding was made available to facilitate the payment of more than 12,000 grants. Local authorities were recently informed of their 2023 allocations with each local authority receiving an increase on the 2022 allocation, continuing the year on year increases since 2014.

In 2022, Louth County Council received an allocation of almost €2.25 million and spent over €1.35 million. In 2023, Louth County Council received an allocation of over €2.3 million composed of more than €1.86 million in Exchequer funding and over €460,000 to be funded from the local authority's own resources. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage works closely with local authorities to monitor spend and to achieve a full drawdown of available funding. This means that any underspend that arises on the part of any local authority can be redistributed to other authorities which have high levels of grant activity. The Department makes every effort to redistribute such funding throughout the year. The Department encourages all local authorities to ensure all applications on hand are processed to the degree possible for final payment to ensure optimal spend on their annual allocation. Louth County Council recently applied for a further Exchequer allocation of over €570,000 and the Department is currently giving consideration to the request.

Housing for All commits to undertaking a review of the range of housing grants available and among the areas the review considered are the income thresholds and grant limits. A report on the review of the housing adaptation grants for older people and people with a disability has been prepared by the Department. On foot of careful consideration of the report, the Minister has asked Department officials to engage with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform on the review report.