COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, April 14, 2014

QUESTION NO.7

QUESTION: Councillor D. Looney

To ask the Manager for an update on funding and spending for 2014 for housing adaptation grants (HAGS/MAGS/HOPS) and the tenant disabled persons grants?

REPLY:

Housing Grant Schemes

The Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, by letter dated 16th January 2014, advised the Council of a combined Capital Allocation of €1,667,043 for the three Housing Grant types in question, for 2014. This annual Capital Allocation is not specifically apportioned to any of the three Housing Grant Schemes or to any of the electoral areas in the county.

To date this year expenditure of €245,000 has been incurred countywide on the three Housing Grant Schemes, and grants to the value of an additional sum of €296,580 have been approved but not yet paid out. 

In correspondence received from the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government the Council continues to be advised that local authorities should ensure that funds are targeted at essential works only and that an effective and easy to understand scheme of prioritisation be in place to ensure that applications are prioritised on the basis of the medical needs of the applicant. The three levels of medical priority advised to this Council are as follows:

  1.  Priority 1: Terminally ill or mainly dependent on family or a carer, or where alterations/adaptations would facilitate the discharge from hospital or alleviate hospitalisation in the future.
  2. Priority 2: Mobile, but needs assistance in accessing facilities, or where, without the adaptation the disabled persons' ability to function independently would be hindered.
  3. Priorty3: The applicant is independent, but requires special facilities to improve their quality of life, e.g. separate bedroom or living space.

Applicants who do not have the highest medical priority are informed in writing that funding is not currently available to allow their applications to be approved. However that is not to say that applications falling into Priority 2 & 3 may not be favourably considered later in the year subject to available resources.

Tenant / Disabled Works on Council housing stock

The carrying out of works to facilitate elderly or disabled tenants of the Council's own housing stock is not covered in the aforementioned Capital Allocation.   However Local Authorities were advised in correspondence from the DoECLG that the general provisions relating to Housing Adaptation Grant for People with a Disability as referred to above shall also apply in respect of adaptation works carried out to local authority rented dwellings to meet the needs of a person with a disability. 

The cost of adapting local authority rented dwellings is met directly by the Council through Internal Capital Receipts. 

To date in 2014, a sum of €90,000 has been expended on such works and it is anticipated that in the order of c  €290,000 will be spend during 2014 having regard to the fact that there are currently 222 applications on hand.