Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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181. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will investigate the possibility of amending the current criteria for the mobility aids housing grant scheme to ensure that applicants with severe arthritis and other such conditions are included under priority 1 status on the medical certificate section of the application form in response to reports that the current criteria is not specific enough to accommodate such conditions and undermines the severity of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32808/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides funding to local authorities towards the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability; the suite of grants includes the Housing Aid for Older People Grant, the Housing Adaptation Grant for People with a Disability and the Mobility Aids Grant.

The detailed administration of these grants, including the assessment, approval and prioritisation of grants to applicants under the various measures, is the responsibility of the local authorities. I do not propose to amend the current criteria for the scheme as they place no restriction on the medical conditions that will give rise to a person being eligible under the scheme. This allows for a local authority, in implementing the scheme locally, to prioritise applications as they deem necessary based on the input of the doctor, the occupational therapist and other urgent considerations such as medical need of the applicant or the discharge of patients home from hospital.