Disabled Grants on Hold Until After April Budget

Cllr Catherine Murphy has been advised by a Department of the Environment & Local Government that Local Authorities will have to wait until after the April budget before being notified of the amount of grant funding for Housing Adaptation – Mobility Aids  & Essential Repairs.  

Kildare County Council currently have well in excess of  500 applications the bulk of  which were  carried over from 2008.  While Kildare have been accepting new applications,   the public are being advised that no applications will be processed until the Council are given the go ahead by the Department.

The Grants which are means tested,  are co-financed by the Department of   Environment & Local Government,  who provide 80% funding,  and Local Authorities who provide the balancing 20%.   One benefit of the scheme is the freeing up hospital beds by allowing patients to return home once modifications have been carried out.   Kildare have not been in a position in 2009 to provide grants even where emergency situations arise. 

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Kildare with a population in excess of 186,000 received €1.9million in 2008 this compares very unfavorably with most local authorities,  Leitrim with just a fraction of Kildare’s population 27,000 received €1.5m while Donegal received €4.2m despite having  40,000 less inhabitants;   Mayo with just two thirds the population of Kildare received €1m more from this fund.   It is essential the 2009 allocations are made as soon as possible but also that they  are fairly distributed,  something that Cllr Murphy has complained has not occurred to date. 

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Posted by catherinemurphy on March 15, 2009. Filed under disAbility & Special Needs,Eldercare,Healthcare,Political & Public Service Reform. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.