Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 594: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will review the system of allocating personal alarms and safety devices to elderly persons; if applications will be processed frequently throughout the year to address the problem of grants to the organisations that administer the system coming out and new applications having to wait for several months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10288/05]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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The scheme of community support for older people encourages and assists local support for older people by means of a community-based grant scheme to improve the security of its older members. The scheme is administered by community and voluntary organisations throughout the country on an annual basis with support provided by my Department. This allows my Department to assess the amount of funding sought under the scheme in a given year and ensure that the funding available is distributed as equitably as possible to all applicant organisations, be they small wholly voluntary operated or larger well resourced organisations.

My Department recently completed a comprehensive review of the scheme and as a result, I am pleased to advise that the scheme has just been advertised this week, more than three months in advance of last year's scheme. I expect that this will allow for the timely installation of equipment to successful individual applicants.