Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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17. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to increase the housing adaptation grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38949/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The funding provided for the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability Scheme to support people living in private houses, has increased year on year since 2014. From a funding level five years ago of €43m, supporting 7,000 people, this year I have made a total of €66.25m available nationally for the schemes, which will directly benefit 10,000 people. This is an increase of some 11% on the 2017 level of funding. 

In line with the Programme for a Partnership Government and the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan, I will give further consideration to increasing this funding over the coming years, as I am conscious of the social benefit accruing from these grants in terms of facilitating older people and people with a disability to remain living independently in their own homes.

My Department works closely with the local authorities to achieve a full drawdown of the available funding each year.  There will continue to be careful scrutiny of spend over the course of the rest of this year, with any underspend redistributed to those local authorities with high levels of grant activity who seek additional funding.