John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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357. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government following the publication of his action plan for housing and homelessness four months ago the status of the progress made to date on action 5.8 to explore ways in which to promote the availability of step down specialist housing for older persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35107/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Pillar 5 of Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness is focussed on achieving optimum occupancy of the country’s existing housing stock so as to meet national housing needs in as effective a way as possible.

Providing older people with the option of moving to specialist accommodation which is more suited to their needs is one measure which could potentially free up larger dwellings for use as family homes. My Department is exploring ways in which this can be facilitated within the operational framework of Rebuilding Ireland.

This work, which is due for completion by Quarter 2 of 2017, will build on existing initiatives in this area such as Dublin City Council’s Financial Contribution Scheme for Older Persons which has facilitated a number of older people to down-size from their privately owned homes that had become too large for them, thus increasing the stock of family homes.