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.
The Exchequer funding available for these grants in 2026 increased substantially by €30 million to €129.5 million, or over €152 million when accounting for the local authority contribution, continuing the year on year increases since 2014.
My Department is aware that some local authorities have paused the acceptance of priority 2 and priority 3 applications but are continuing to consider priority 1 applications. Priority 1 is defined as individuals who are terminally ill, primarily dependent on family or a carer, or where adaptations to the home would support applicants leaving hospital or residential care.
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. My Department is actively engaging with local authorities to facilitate redistribution of any such savings as early as possible this year. One local authority applied recently for an additional Exchequer allocation. My Department is giving consideration to this request and will make a decision in this regard in due course.
Details on the original Exchequer allocations for 2025 are available on my Department's website at the following link: 13,000 older and disabled people to benefit from over €117 million Housing Adaptation Grant funding (www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/press-releases/13000-older-and-disabled-people-to-benefit-from-over-117-million-housing-adaptation-grant-funding/). The final drawdown per local authority for 2025 will be published shortly on my Department's website. Details on the allocations for 2026 are available on my Department's website at the following link: Increased funding of almost €130m announced to improve homes for older people and disabled people (www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/press-releases/increased-funding-of-almost-130m-announced-to-improve-homes-for-older-people-and-disabled-people/).
The funding allocations are based on evidence informed metrics, i.e. the population of older and disabled people in the local authority area as per the 2022 Census, the HP Pobal Deprivation Index and actual grant demand activity in the local authority.
Local authorities are responsible for the administration of the scheme, therefore the number of applications received, approved or refused may be available directly from local authorities.
