Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
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Question 321: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the grants available for elderly people living in remote rural areas looking to install an alarm in a home for security reasons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45114/08]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department manages the Scheme of Community Support for Older People, which assists qualifying older people, by means of a community based grant scheme. Funding is provided towards the once-off cost of installing monitored alarm systems, door and window locks, door chains, security lighting, smoke alarms and in the case of qualifying older people living on our offshore islands, interior emergency lighting. The Scheme does not cover intruder alarms.

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 provided under the Scheme are 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; and

€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.