Meath County Council has 3,300 units in its housing stock. The disabled persons improvement grant announced on 9 September was €260,363 and last year it was €269,500. It is a very small grant given the amount of housing stock Meath County Council is dealing with. Can it be increased? Local authorities must come up with 20% matched funding for grants with regard to older people and people with disabilities. This is an awful drain on resources and is crippling local authorities. Last year, Meath County Council received an additional €200,000 for windows and doors. This year it received no additional money. The local authority did not look for it because it was not able to match 20% of the funding because it would have been an awful drain on resources. The Tánaiste knows, and if he does not another Minister will, that Meath County Council is the lowest funded local authority in Ireland from central government funding. I ask for this to be addressed.

The budget announced on Tuesday provides an extra €36 million for local authorities. I do not know exactly how it will be allocated. I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, to come back to the Deputy with more information on it and to respond to his query directly.