Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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266. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the reason the additional funding for housing grants will only be available to private homeowners; and his plans for tackling the backlog of private and social housing adaptation grants. [31760/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides funding to have necessary repairs or improvement works carried out to the private houses of older people and people with a disability. There is a strong social benefit accruing from this funding in terms of supporting older people and people with a disability to continue to live independently in their own homes and, in some cases, to avoid an outcome where people may otherwise require social housing. The Programme for a Partnership Government committed to support further increases in funding given these benefits and the peace of mind the grants provide.

My Department also provides funding to local authorities for a range of programmes that support local authorities to improve the housing conditions of social housing tenants. This includes funding for adaptations and extensions to the social housing stock to meet the needs of local authority tenants with a disability or to address serious overcrowding.  Funding for the latter has increased over recent years and as with the private house grants, my Department stays in ongoing contact with local authorities regarding the implementation of the schemes, with authorities having the option in recent years to draw down additional funding to address backlogs. On the basis of current funding drawdown for adaptations and extensions to the social housing stock, I intend to provide significant funding for the scheme again in 2017.