Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will reverse the cut of approximately €2.1 million in grants for persons with disabilities and for housing aid for older perosns, notified to South Tipperary County Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14565/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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On 22 February 2013 I announced capital allocations to local authorities under the suite of Grants for Older People and People with a Disability amounting to €42.750 million. In allocating the available funding across all 34 city and county councils I did so in as transparent and as fair a way as possible. In framing the 2013 allocations, my Department wrote to each local authority requesting details of the numbers and value of grants where work had been approved to commence. Between them, local authorities reported contractual commitments in respect of approved grants totally €18 million. This year I allocated local authorities the full amount of their contractual commitments, which in the case of South Tipperary County Council amounted to €81,623. The balance of the available funding was allocated on the basis of each authority’s share of the new applications on hand in January 2013. This brought South Tipperary County Council’s overall allocation to €1,087,988.81.

In order to deal with any acute or particular difficulty which might arise in the operation of the schemes over the course of the year I have set aside a small capital reserve. My Department will consider applications from local authorities for a supplementary allocation in such cases.