The programme for Government refers to supports for independent living for older people. So far this year, Louth County Council has dealt with 460 applications for housing adaptation grants for older people and people with disabilities. This includes 138 applications from last year which could not proceed due to a lack of Government funding. Of those 138 carried over applications, 76 were deemed to be priority 1 applications on the part of seriously ill people. Louth County Council has recently received its Government allocation but it is nowhere near adequate. In fact, it is totally inadequate.

Thank you.

When the Fine Gael-Labour Government was removing public long-stay and respite care beds from the college hospital, its excuse was that it wanted to support independent living for older people. We now have a situation in which seriously ill priority 1 applicants cannot access basics like stair lifts and wet rooms.

This is a Second Stage speech.

Deputy Munster, please.

Will the Government please increase the funding given the avalanche of applications? When will it do so?

We have increased the funding for the last two years and are committed to increasing it every year for the next couple of years. We recognise it is a very important area. The allocations provided to local authorities a few weeks ago will provide for the adaptation of 11,000 houses, which is a major improvement on the 8,000 adapted three years ago.

It will not cover the half of it.

I understand the issue was raised in relation to Louth last year also. There is some difficulty with matched funding locally, which is a matter for Louth County Council. For our part, I guarantee that every local authority has received increased funding. We also seek to adjust funding based on population. Local authorities such as that of Louth and those with increased populations should see that reflected in their allocations.