In recent months, I have held a number of meetings with organisations that provide services to people with disabilities. I acknowledge the tremendous work they do. An issue that came up with a number of different agencies was the difficulties they are having in trying to secure accommodation for clients in the rental market. I was told that most of the funding they receive is used to rent accommodation and they get very little capital funding to purchase properties. Some landlords will only rent a property for a three- or five-year period, which is causing significant difficulties as many landlords are now looking for their properties back as some want to sell to capitalise on escalating property prices and others want the property for family members.

I will give the Tánaiste a brief outline of a case that was given to me by one agency. The agency rented a four-bedroom bungalow for a five-year period at a cost of €1,600 per month. HIQA insisted that works be carried out to bring the house up to its standards and to ensure the accommodation was safe for the residents, and rightly so. It cost in the region of €155,000 to carry out those works and now the landlord wants the house back and returned to its original condition. Some €96,000 was spent on rent over the five years, €155,000 was spent on bringing the house up to HIQA standards and €78,000 was spent to revert the house to the way it was originally. That is a total of €329,000, which is a pure waste of taxpayers' money.

This is happening all over the country. These agencies, which look after the most vulnerable in our society, are finding it nearly impossible to source suitable houses in the rental market. It is a very big worry for them because they may not be able to house their clients. These agencies should be given multi-annual funding to purchase accommodation and to bring that accommodation up to HIQA standards so they can house their clients without the worry of having to move out after a few years. I am aware that some disability agencies work with local authorities and housing agencies to source accommodation but this only provides a small amount of accommodation overall.

Will the Government carry out a full audit of disability services and see how many properties are rented by them? I ask the Government to consider providing multi-annual funding so those agencies can buy and own their own houses. That would be more cost effective for the taxpayer.

I thank the Deputy. I appreciate the fact that he gave us some notice that this question would be raised because it allowed me to get some further information. Generally speaking, what the Government does is to provide funding to local authorities, charities or housing bodies either to build or purchase a house, and adapt it for people with disabilities. It makes much more sense, on many levels, that we would purchase a house and adapt it for people with disabilities or alternatively build a house from scratch, which has to be done sometimes, for people with disabilities.

On occasion, and I do not know how often it happens, a house is rented instead. The rental house is then adapted to make it appropriate for people with disabilities to live in. That is done on the understanding that the house will be leased for a prolonged period of 20, 30 or 40 years. The example that the Deputy gave is, quite frankly, something that should not happen. It sounds like a poor use of taxpayers' money that a house would be rented, adapted at considerable expense to the taxpayer and then taken back by the landlord. If the Deputy will give my office more details of that case, we will look into it because it is definitely not a good use of taxpayers' money and is far from ideal. I do not know how common that is but it is something we should and will look into.

The whole issue of housing for disabled people is now dealt with under a joint strategy of the Departments of Housing, Planning and Local Government and Health. The joint strategy was published in January and as part of that, €96 million is provided every year under the capital assistance scheme for housing. That can be accessed by approved housing bodies for housing for people with disabilities.

That was why I asked if the Government will carry out an audit of the disability sector and see how many houses are rented and what agreements are in place with landlords. If this problem is not addressed, it will continue to cause enormous difficulties for agencies trying to secure suitable accommodation for people with disabilities.

The rental market is already in crisis and not every house is suitable to meet the needs of this group of people. As I stated previously, it is a waste of taxpayers' money to adapt properties to HIQA's standards only to have to give up the property in a few years and incur the expense of returning the property to its original state.

Will the Government look at devising a capital scheme to be introduced over the next couple of years to enable these agencies to purchase their own properties? That would ensure that the homes of the most vulnerable are protected and would result in massive savings for the taxpayer.

I am dealing with Galway County Council at the moment and I know my colleague, Deputy Rabbitte, is involved. A development is taking place in a small village. I have asked Galway County Council to work with the disability agencies to build a number of houses to suit people and, in all fairness, the council has contacted Mr. Liam Hanrahan of the Irish Wheelchair Association. A number of houses are now going to be built to facilitate people in wheelchairs. That should happen a lot more.

I cannot commit to an audit but I have heard the Deputy's call for one and if he can pass on more information about the particular property he mentioned, we would be interested to know what happened and why.

In total, €96 million is available under the capital assistance scheme for housing and that can be accessed by approved housing bodies for housing for people with a disability. Funding for people with disabilities is integrated under the social housing capital delivery schemes, such as the capital assistance scheme, the social housing capital investment programme and the capital advance leasing facility scheme. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage also provides funding of approximately €30 million per year to provide approximately 4,000 grants under the housing adaptation grant for people with a disability. That assists people who live in their own private homes to make their accommodation more suitable for their needs.