Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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221. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the level of funding provided to Cavan County Council in 2018 for the administration of the housing adaptation, the disabled persons grant and the mobility aids grant schemes; if his attention has been drawn to the need to increase the level of such grant aid in view of delays that occur in approving applications; if an increased level of funding will be provided in 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52580/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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For 2018, I announced funding of €66.25m nationally for the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability.  This included an allocation of €1,457,964 for Cavan County Council, comprising exchequer funding of €1,166,371 and €291,593 from the local authority. Following a request for increased funding, the Council was approved additional exchequer funding of €160,000, bringing their total exchequer allocation to €1,326,371, to which €331,592 will be added from the resources of the local authority. The Council has drawn down €1,143,436 exchequer funding to date from my Department this year.

Funding for these schemes has been increasing year on year since 2014 and in addition to a series of annual increases over recent years, my Department continues to work closely with local authorities throughout each year, to monitor spend and to achieve a full drawdown of the available funding. This allows any underspends to be redistributed to local authorities with high levels of grant activity who seek additional 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.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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222. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the level of funding provided to Monaghan County Council in 2018 for the administration of the housing adaptation, the disabled persons grant and the mobility aids grant schemes; if his attention has been drawn to of the need to increase the level of such grant aid in view of delays that occur in approving applications; if an increased level of funding will be provided in 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52581/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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For 2018, I announced funding of €66.25 million nationally for the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability.  This included an allocation of €1,237,425 for Monaghan County Council, comprising exchequer funding of €989,940 and €247,485 from the local authority. Following a request for increased funding, the Council was approved additional exchequer funding of €487,013, bringing their total exchequer allocation to €1,476,953, to which €369,238 will be added from the resources of the local authority. The Council has now drawn down the full €1,476,953 of exchequer funding from my Department.

Funding for these schemes has been increasing year on year since 2014 and in addition to these annual increases, my Department continues to work closely with local authorities throughout each year, to monitor spend and to achieve a full drawdown of the available funding. This allows any underspends to be redistributed to local authorities with high levels of grant activity who seek additional 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.