asked the Minister for the Environment if he will give the health boards the discretion of providing finance from a special repairs for the elderly fund for applicants who qualify for assistance from that fund who have been approved grants under the house improvement grant scheme, who are unable to provide finance from their own resources to proceed with the improvement of their houses and who have also been informed by health boards in question that it may be several years before 100 per cent grant assistance can be provided for them from the special repairs scheme for the elderly due to the large number of applicants on hand in the various health boards and the limited amount of finance available each year.

31.

asked the Minister for the Environment if he will consider drawing up a scheme which will provide joint operation and funding between local authorities and the task force who operate housing aid for the elderly so as to provide in particular the essential services of water and sewerage.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 22 and 31 together. The scheme of special housing aid for the elderly, is administered by a task force set up under the aegis of my Department and is operated at local level by the health boards. The scheme was specially introduced to cater for the housing needs of elderly persons living alone in unfit or insanitary conditions who might not be in a position to contribute towards the cost of necessary repairs to their houses. The scheme has proved extremely popular and is operating very well. The boards have considerable flexibility in operating the scheme and, within broad guidelines it is a matter for each board to determine how their annual allocation is to be spent. Heretofore, there has been considerable emphasis on repair work; however, the additional funding of £500,000 available this year will facilitate to a greater extent the provision of the basic amenities of a water supply and sewerage facilities where required. I am not at present contemplating any further changes in the existing arrangements nor would it be appropriate that assistance under the scheme should be provided as a contribution towards the cost of works for which house improvement grants would also be payable.

Will the Minister confirm that the discretion being given to health boards will allow them, instead of providing 100 per cent funding from the special repairs scheme for the elderly, to provide one-third of the cost if two-thirds has already been approved under the house improvements scheme?

I do not see any merit in having the various incentive schemes overlapping.

This is an excellent scheme but the Minister should examine how it could be tied in with the task force to provide basic facilities which are so necessary for many old people, but no available. With the task force helping the local authorities to implement the house improvement scheme very good work could be done and old people could have their houses improved more quickly.

The problem is being exaggerated. The scheme has been operating for four years and a lot of the more basic work has been done.

There are several hundred old people living in squalor.

The national allocation this year has been increased from £1 million to £1½ million and it is hoped that that 50 per cent increase, together with the amount of basic work that has been done in many parts of the country — there may be particular problems in certain areas because the costs of similar work being carried out by different health boards varies extraordinarily from one part of the country to the other — will improve the position. If greater care was taken about the cost, more work would be done.

I wish to raise subject matter of this question on the Adjournment.

We go on now to priority questions.