There is an estimated €7,029,542 worth of housing grants waiting for approval in Mayo County Council under three grant schemes operated by the council, the housing SPC of the council was told this week. The three grant areas that the council handle are the mobility grants scheme, the housing adaptation grant scheme for people with disabilities, and the housing aid for older people.
The members of the SPC were told that the schemes, which were set up in 2007, were replacements for older schemes, the emergency repair grant and disabled persons grant, which were previously operated by local authorities, and the housing aid for the elderly grant which was operated by the health boards.
Martin Keating, for Mayo County Council, told the members that under the new scheme, “There is an expanded range of works that can be covered by the scheme and 80 per cent of the cost was covered by the Department of Environment and 20 per cent by the local authority, but there is no provision for prioritisation within the guidelines and the funding for the scheme each year is subject to a maximum allocation of funds which is notified on a county basis by the department, which comes as part of the general housing allocation each year”.
The members were also told that this year the initial total allocation made to Mayo was €2.7 million, which was topped up to €3.45 million later in the year, and that €3.14 million has already been spent, leaving €301,118 left to deal with outstanding applications which have been approved, but there is still €7,029,542 worth of applications left to be approved with the council.
“The scheme is a good one, but there is one major flaw,” Independent Councillor Gerry Ginty told the meeting. “It doesn’t take into account who needs the money the most. This is a serious danger, people who can afford to carry out the works themselves will see there is a grant available to pay for this or that they’ll apply while other people who seriously need it can be left at the back of the queue.”
Paul Benson, for Mayo County Council, agreed with Cllr Ginty’s assertion. “There are no provisions for us to prioritise people, we just have to take them as they come,” he said. Mr Keating told the meeting that under the old scheme the council was able to modify the scheme to ensure that the people who needed it the most were pushed to the top, but there was no provision under this current scheme. Director of services for Mayo County Council Peter Hynes told the members that the schemes were currently being reviewed by the Department and he hoped to hear of the findings of this review by the end of the year or early in 2010. Paul Benson did point out that, despite the backlog, a lot of work had already been done by the council under these schemes, with 750 to 800 houses having works carried out on them in the two years since the start of the scheme.
