OLDER PEOPLE’S charity Friends of the Elderly has called on the Minister for the Environment to carry out a cost-benefit analysis on home conversion grant schemes.
The call came after figures in The Irish Timesshowed a shortfall of at least €22 million in funding to local authorities for applicants to the schemes.
Many local authorities have already spent or allocated their funding for 2009, and some have closed their application process.
Many applicants face waits of two years or more in some areas to get funding to carry out works such as widening doors for wheelchair access, installing a downstairs bathroom or fitting walk-in showers.
The Housing Adaptation Grant scheme, the Mobility Aid Grant scheme and the Housing Aid for Older People scheme are administered by local authorities and chiefly funded by the Department of the Environment.
Dermot Kirwan, spokesman for Friends of the Elderly, said the backlog in the schemes meant some elderly people had remained in hospital longer than necessary while waiting for works to be carried out on their homes.
He called on Minister for the Environment John Gormley to carry out a cost-benefit analysis on the home conversion grants schemes. He also said the department should provide additional funding to make up the shortfall in the schemes as soon as possible. “Not providing funding for these schemes is short-sighted and mealy-mouthed.”
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said the schemes would be kept under review. “If any additional funding becomes available we will reallocate it to these schemes.”
