Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

472. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will consider the reintroduction of the special housing aid for the elderly scheme to assist the elderly and disabled who require works to their home and where the local authority is no longer accepting applications for housing aid for older people or housing adaption grants due to their lack of funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24274/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Special Housing Aid for the Elderly Scheme (SHAE) was discontinued in 2007 and replaced by the suite of Grants for Older People and People with a Disability. The Housing Aid for Older People measure provides increased levels of grant assistance for a suite of works which are similar in nature to those previously assisted under the SHAE . I have no proposals to reintroduce the SHAE.

On 22 February 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 in the first instance. 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.

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 set aside a small capital reserve. I recently approved supplementary allocations totalling €1.2 million for 13 local authorities. I will consider further applications from local authorities where similar difficulties have arisen.