Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 404: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of housing aid and improvement for the elderly grant applications that have been accepted and approved at local authority level on a county basis in tabular form; the number of these applications that have been given funding on a county basis in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35660/09]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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My Department's involvement with the Housing Adaptation Grant Schemes for Older People and People with a Disability relates primarily to the recoupment of a proportion of local authority expenditure on the payment of individual grants. These schemes, introduced on 1 November 2007, are funded by 80% recoupment available from my Department, together with a 20% contribution from the resources of the local authority. The older Disabled Persons and Essential Repairs grant schemes are funded by 67% recoupment, together with a 33% contribution from the resources of the local authority. The detailed administration of these schemes, including the assessment and approval of applications and the payment of grants to individual applicants, is the responsibility of the relevant local authority. It is a matter for each local authority to decide on the specific level of funding to be directed towards each of the individual schemes, from within the combined allocation notified to them by my Department, and to manage the operation of the schemes in their areas from within their allocation.

Information on local authority activity under the Disabled Persons and Emergency Repairs grant schemes and the suite of Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability, is published in my Department's Housing Statistics Bulletins, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas Library and on my Department's website, www.environ.ie

In so far as the current year is concerned, over the period 1 January 2009 to 30 September 2009, a total of €48.214 million, relating to some 7,760 individual grant payments, has been recouped by my Department to local authorities under the various grant measures. A detailed breakdown, by local authority, of the number of grant payments and the amount recouped is set out in the following table.

Details regarding the current status of individual applications under each of the various grant measures are not available in my Department.