COUNCIL SEEKS FUNDING FOR HOUSING GRANTS

THE members of Sligo County Council unanimously supported a motion tabled by Cllr Declan Bree calling on the Government to provide adequate funding for the Council’s Housing Grants Schemes.

Proposing his motion at this months meeting of the Council Cllr Bree said: “The decision taken by Council officials to suspend the housing grants schemes and not to accept any further housing grant applications since the 1st of May, due to lack of funding from the Department of the Environment clearly confirms that this Council is being discriminated against in terms of the funding being allocated for such schemes.

“The outgoing Minister for Housing Michael Finneran, provided only €997,000 to cover the cost of our Housing grants scheme this year.   Yet Leitrim, a county with a much smaller population, received €990,000; Donegal received €3,100,000; Mayo received €2,724,000 and Roscommon received €2,562,000.    In this context we have to ask, why are the people of Sligo being discriminated against?

“The limited level of funding allocated to this Council for the ‘Housing Aid for Older People’ grants; the ‘Housing Adaptation Grants for People with a Disability’ and the  ‘Mobility Aid Grants’ can only be described as an injustice.

“All of us are aware that these schemes are vitally important in helping older people and people with a disability to continue to live in their own homes and communities with the dignity they deserve.

“However the lack of adequate funding will leave many elderly and disabled people on low incomes without the necessary assistance to carry out required works on their homes.   

“What we are talking about here is an attack on the elderly and disabled.  At a time when central Government continues to bail out the bankers and developers to the tune of billions of Euro there can be no excuse for penny pinching on these important housing grants.

“There can be no justification for penalising the elderly and the disabled – people who have had no hand act or part in bringing about the financial crisis that this Country finds itself in, while at the same time the fat cats, the bankers, bondholders and the speculators who have brought the country to the verge of ruin are being rewarded.  

Cllr Bree then formally proposed his motion which read: “Recognising that there are in excess of 100 Housing Grant applications  (Housing Adaptation Grant for Persons with a Disability Scheme; Mobility Grant Scheme and Housing Aid for Older People Grant Scheme) which the Council cannot process due to lack of funding, and further recognising that the Council was obliged to stop taking applications from eligible applicants for Housing Grants from the 1st of May, this Council now calls on the Minister and the Department of the Environment to provide adequate finances to fund the Housing Grants Schemes for the current year.”