Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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570. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide, in tabular form, the amount of funding being made available to local authorities in 2015 under the housing adaptation grant scheme, the housing aid for older people scheme, the mobility aid grant scheme and the disabled persons grants scheme for council owned properties; if he will provide a breakdown of the total amount of funds requested and the amount of funds released by councils; the reason for the delay if funding has yet to be approved; and the expected time frame for these funds to be released, by county. [17854/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Exchequer funding of over €37 million was provided by my Department to local authorities in 2014 for the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability. Combined with an additional 20% contribution by individual local authorities, there was an overall spend last year of €46.3 million in this area. I am pleased to confirm that the 2015 amount will increase by some 10% to give a combined spend of €50.5 million. The 2015 allocations are currently under consideration in my Department and will issue to local authorities very shortly.

My Department also provides funding to local authorities for various social housing supports to meet the needs of local authority tenants with a disability. Funding provided by my Department meets 90% of the cost of such works, with each local authority providing the remaining 10%. Exchequer funding of €8m was provided to local authorities in 2014 in this regard. The administration of the grants is a matter for individual local authorities. My Department has received proposals in relation to this scheme for 2015 from each local authority which are currently being examined with a view to allocating funding to each authority as soon as possible.