Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if there is any funding available from his Department to assist a community group (details supplied) with the construction of a settlement of eight housing units for elderly persons to live independently [8173/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Under my Department’s Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS), funding of up to 100% of the approved cost is available to Approved Housing Bodies for the provision of accommodation to meet the needs of persons with specific categories of housing need including older people, people with an intellectual, physical or mental health disability, the homeless, returning emigrants and victims of domestic violence etc. My Department’s involvement with the CAS relates primarily to the provision of funds for individual projects. The detailed administration of the scheme, including the appraisal of proposals, the certification that projects comply with the terms and conditions of the funding scheme and the processing of applications for funding, are the responsibility of the relevant local authority. Approvals are largely based on the prioritisation afforded to individual proposals by the local authority in question.

Work is currently underway on preparing the capital allocations under the Social Housing Investment Programme for 2013, including the CAS measure. As part of this process my Department requested local authorities to submit details of their capital requirements for this year in respect of all approved projects and programmes. I will review the potential to invite local authorities to submit new CAS applications in the light of the available finances and the submissions received from local authorities.