Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the extent to which the various local authorities have received adequate provision to meet the disabled persons housing adaptation grant requirements in the current year; the numbers awaiting approval throughout the various local authorities countywide; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5967/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My Department remains committed to providing financial assistance to older people and people with a disability who wish to carry out essential repairs, extensions/adaptations to their homes in order to meet their accommodation needs. Work is currently underway on preparing the capital allocations under the housing programme for 2013, including the suite of Grants for Older People and People with a Disability. As part of this process, my Department requested local authorities earlier this month to submit details of their capital requirements under the grant schemes. This information is being assessed at present. I intend to announce details of the capital allocations to individual authorities as soon as possible.

The grant schemes are administered by the local authorities and it is a matter for each local authority to determine the grant eligibility and priority of individual applications, the scope of the works to be funded under the relevant scheme and how the funding is apportioned between the various schemes. Local authorities have reported that some 3,258 grant applications have been approved for funding in 2013 and that a further 8,800 applications are at various stages of processing.