Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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255. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if Louth County Council has drawn down the €570,000 additional funding for the housing adaptation grant scheme that was allocated to it last year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5139/24]

Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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256. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the total housing adaptation grant funding provided to Louth County Council for 2023 and if he can provide a breakdown of the spending of this funding under the various schemes under the housing adaptation grant, in tabular form. [5140/24]

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 255 and 256 together.

My Department provides funding under the suite of Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability, to assist people in private houses to make their accommodation more suitable for their needs. The grants are 80% funded by my Department, with a 20% contribution from the resources of the local authority. The detailed administration of these schemes including assessment, approval and prioritisation, is the responsibility of local authorities.

The initial Exchequer allocation in 2023 for Louth County Council was over €1.8 million. In June 2023, the Department provided approval for a further Exchequer allocation of over €570,000 to Louth County Council bringing its total Exchequer allocation to over €2.4 million in 2023. Louth County Council claimed Exchequer funding of just €1.58 million in 2023.

Details of the funding claimed under the various schemes for all local authorities up to 2023, including Louth County Council, can be found on my Department's website at the following link:

www.housing.gov.ie/housing/statistics/social-and-affordble/other-local-authority-housing-scheme-statistics.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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257. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the types of funding allocated to local authorities in Cavan and Monaghan for the upkeep of public lighting and new installation of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5151/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department does not provide specific funding allocations for public lighting. The provision and maintenance of public lighting is the responsibility of each individual local authority. Local authorities receive income from a variety of sources including grants from Central Government, Local Property Tax proceeds, commercial rates and other locally-raised charges.

It is a matter for each local authority to determine its own spending priorities, including funding towards the provision and maintenance of public lighting, having regard to both locally identified needs and available resources.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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258. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the types of funding allocated to local authorities in Cavan and Monaghan for the taking in charge of housing estates where the developer is no longer managing lighting and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5152/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 258 and 263 together.

The taking in charge of housing estates by local authorities is provided for under section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended (the Act), and the procedures for this are initiated under section 11 of the Roads Act, 1993. The taking in charge of residential estates is also a reserved function of the elected members. It is generally a standard condition of granting permission for housing development that the developer must lodge a security bond to ensure the satisfactory completion of the development to enable it to be taken in charge by the local authority.

Therefore, ultimately, progression of individual developments through the taking-in-charge process is a matter for the relevant housing developer, the residents in such developments, the relevant local authorities and elected members to consider on a case-by-case basis.

Under Section 30 of the Act, I, in my role as Minister with responsibility for planning, am precluded from exercising any power or control in relation to any particular case with which a planning authority or the Board is or may be concerned.