Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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33. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the funding being provided for housing adaptation grants in 2025 and the allocation for 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65541/25]

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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77. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the local authorities that have underspent their housing adaptation grant allocation; the local authorities that have had their funding increased under the redistribution of the underspends in 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65664/25]

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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503. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if there has been any increase in the housing adaption grants in Budget 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66549/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 33, 77 and 503 together.

My Department provides funding under the suite of Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and Disabled People, to assist those in private houses to make their accommodation more suitable for their needs. The suite of grants, which include the Housing Adaptation Grant for Disabled People, the Mobility Aids Grant and the Housing Aid for Older People Grant, are funded by my Department with a contribution from the local authority. The detailed administration of the scheme including assessment, approval, prioritisation and apportionment is the responsibility of local authorities.

Details of initial annual allocations and subsequent local authority drawdown for 2024, including where additional funding had been sanctioned or where allocations have been underspent, can be found on my Department's website at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/collections/other-local-authority-housing-scheme-statistics/

The Exchequer funding available for these grants in 2025 has been increased substantially by €25 million to €99.5 million, or over €117 million when accounting for the local authority contribution.

My Department works closely with local authorities to monitor spend and to achieve a full drawdown of available funding. This means that any underspends that arise on the part of any local authority can be redistributed to other authorities which have high levels of grant activity and my Department makes every effort to redistribute such funding throughout the year.

To date, almost €5.7 million in estimated underspends has been redistributed to 11 local authorities, who have requested additional funding for 2025, and the information is set out in the following table:

Budget 2026 provides a further increase of €30 million for the scheme, with almost €130 million available, continuing the year on year increases since 2014.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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34. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to immediately raise the income limits for social housing to ensure that those who cannot afford cost rental or private rented are not denied eligibility for social housing. [65845/25]

Noel McCarthy (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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81. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the proposals being considered by his Department to increase the income threshold for applicants looking to access social housing through their local authority; the last date such an increase was made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65663/25]

Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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113. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will review and increase the social housing income limits for counties such as Tipperary, which currently stands at €30,000 per annum, given that the national minimum wage is set to rise to €14.15 per hour from 1 January 2026, bringing annual earnings for a 40-hour week to approximately €29,432, considering the fact that this leaves minimum-wage workers on the verge of exceeding the social housing income threshold; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62010/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 34, 81 and 113 together.

The baseline income thresholds increased by €5,000 for all local authorities with effect from 1 January 2023. The thresholds thus increased to €40,000, €35,000 and €30,000 for Bands 1, 2 and 3 respectively. These thresholds are net income thresholds, i.e. gross household income less income tax, PRSI, Universal Social Charge and Additional Superannuation Contribution. This €5,000 increase broadened the eligibility base, increasing the number of households eligible for support and lessening the impact on disadvantaged and vulnerable households of the significant increase in the cost of accommodation and cost of living generally in recent years.

Income is defined and assessed according to a standard Household Means Policy. The Policy provides for a range of income disregards and local authorities also have discretion to disregard income that is once-off, temporary or short-term in nature and which is outside the regular pattern of a person’s annual income.

My Department has been examining the existing income limits in the context of current market and household income conditions, including the suitability or otherwise of the current framework having regard to the significantly changed landscape since the standardised income limits were introduced. This includes examining the findings of research commissioned by my Department and this work is ongoing.