Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 650: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the schemes or grants available to a person (details supplied) in County Kildare to obtain a panic alarm, in view of the fact that this person is living alone, in a rural part of Kildare and is in receipt of a State pension. [9432/07]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department operates the Scheme of Community Support for Older People. This Scheme encourages and assists the community's support for older people by means of community based grants to improve the security of its vulnerable older members in their own homes.

The Scheme is open to people aged 65 and over who have a genuine need for assistance and is administered by community and voluntary organisations throughout the country with support provided by my Department.

Maximum individual grants are provided under the scheme as follows:

€300 in respect of the once-off installation cost of socially monitored alarms

€200 in respect of physical security equipment

€200 in respect of security lighting

€50 in respect of smoke alarms

€150 in respect of interior emergency lighting for qualifying older people living on our offshore islands.

Applications under the Scheme are accepted throughout the year and can be made through a local community and voluntary group. Information on such groups is available from my Department and a list of Groups approved under the Scheme in recent years is available on my Department's website: www.pobail.ie.