Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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341. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will direct local authorities to re-examine applications for housing grants for the elderly and disabled which were not possible to process due to the Covid-19 pandemic and reduced access to local authority offices (details supplied). [44337/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The detailed administration of the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability scheme in respect of private houses, including the assessment, approval and payment of individual grants to applicants, is the responsibility of the relevant local authority.

The framework for the operation of the scheme is laid down in statutory regulations, namely the Housing (Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability) Regulations 2007, and the Housing (Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability) (Amendment) Regulations 2014. Under these regulations, a housing authority may pay a grant to a member of the household for the carrying out of necessary repairs or improvements to a house where, in the opinion of the authority, it considers the repairs or improvements reasonably necessary to make habitable the house for the lifetime of the occupant.

In order for the relevant housing authority to determine whether the works are reasonably necessary, a completed application must be submitted by an applicant prior to the commencement of any works, to allow the relevant housing authority to inspect the property and confirm that the works are eligible for grant funding.

I understand from the local authority in question that in the case raised, an application was submitted after the works were completed, and was therefore subsequently refused in line with the above regulations.