Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 March 2026
183. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the funding levels to local authorities, by county, for the disability adaptation to housing stock scheme for council houses and adaptation grants for people with disabilities for private houses. [17607/26]
View answerMy 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.
Details of the allocations and drawdown for the years 2014 to 2024 are available on my Department's website at the following link:
https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/collections/other-local-authority-housing-scheme-statistics/
The total funding drawn down by local authorities in 2025 will be available on my Department’s website in early 2026.
The Exchequer funding available for these grants in 2025 was increased substantially by €25 million to €99.5 million, or over €117 million when accounting for the local authority contribution.
Budget 2026 provides an increase of €30 million for the scheme, with almost €130 million in Exchequer funding available for the Scheme, or over €152 million when accounting for the local authority contribution delivering the continued year-on-year increases in funding for the grant scheme since 2014. This significant increase in funding will support the payment of some 17,000 grant claims.
My Department will issue notification shortly of each local authority’s allocation for 2026 under the scheme. Importantly, all local authorities can commit up to 75% of their 2025 allocation when approving applications to be paid in 2026 ensuring a seamless transition of the schemes remaining open from year to year.
My Department also provides funding to local authorities under the Disabled Persons Grants scheme to carry out works on social housing stock to address the needs of older people, disabled people or overcrowded situations. This programme includes capital funding to Local Authorities for Improvement Works in Lieu scheme (IWILs) of local authority housing with a single allocations issued each year. €26.5 million is available this year to support this important work.
The number of local authorities that received funding under the Disabled Persons Grant / IWILs scheme for the years 2017 up to 2024 is available on my Department's website at the following link: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/544a0-disabled-persons-grant-and-improved-works-in-lieu-schemes-units-funded-by-the-department/?referrer=http://www.gov.ie/en/publication/0d9e5-disabled-persons-grant-and-improved-works-in-lieu-schemes-units-funded-by-the-department-2017-2020/
Detail of delivery under the 2025 Disabled Persons Grant Programme will be published shortly.
