Council being ‘flooded’ with housing grant applications

“We are being flooded with applications as we speak, they are coming out of the woodwork, and we would not be able to fund all of them in the next two, or even three years,” admitted Offaly County Council Director of Services, Sharon Kennedy, at the January meeting of the local authority.

Ms Kennedy was referring to the large number of applications before the council for housing adaptation grants, on foot of complaints from several councillors. The scheme is used to fund basic adaptations to council houses occupied by the elderly and those with disabilities.

Independent Cllr Sean O’Brien spoke of his frustration with the system and complained that he cannot even get a response from the council when he tries to contact them about basic house repairs on behalf of those who have made contact with him.

“I cannot communicate directly with the people who are in charge of basic repairs, and this needs to be sorted out,” declared Cllr O’Brien. “Anytime I contact the council I get no response and if repairs are not going to be carried out for two months I need to be told this.”

He called for more money to be provided for repairs works, if possible, as did a number of other councillors, including Fianna Fail Cllr Tony McCormack, who also called for a “complete review” of the whole process of funding repairs and adaptations to council housing stock. “Most of us know these houses inside out,” he added.

His party colleague on Tullamore Municipal District, Cllr Declan Harvey, also expressed his frustration at the lack of funding for repairs, and said he wasn’t looking to have “a Rolls Royce job done…maybe a stair lift, maybe a bathroom or a toilet downstairs” he said.

Cllr Harvey also voiced his concerns about the delay in carrying out emergency repairs to council houses, and said he had received “a good few calls” about this during the recent spell of bad weather, with heating being a particular problem.

Outlining the current situation in relation to housing adaptations, the council’s Housing Officer, Monica Cleary, said 130 housing grants were approved in 2020, worth €1.3m. 56 housing adaptations were completed, while 16 projects where mobility aid was required had also been fully finished. She added that there were 58 grants for housing aid for the elderly.

However, her council colleague, Sharon Kennedy, said she was concerned about the “adequacy of funding” for housing adaptations and said a prioritisation process was being used by the council in assessing applications.