People Before Profit councillor for Dún Laoghaire Dave O’Keeffe has slammed the government over a severe error in which all councils in the country were given the wrong guidelines from the department for the assessment of home adaptation grants for people living with a disability. It appears that people in the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council area and all councils across the country could have missed out on vital funding from the state to adapt their home for accessibility needs.
Parliamentary Questions have been tabled by People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett to ascertain the number of people affected.
Many of these home adaptation grants were for wheelchair adaptions to make homes accessible.
Some applicants for the Housing Adaptation Grants for People with a Disability did not receive their full entitlement which has left people hugely out of pocket.
Cllr O’Keeffe said: “This miscalculation on the assessment vital housing adaptation funding for people living with a disability in the DLRCC area and in other councils across the country is a scandal and the blame falls right at the feet of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Minister Eoghan Murphy.
“Some of the most vulnerable members of our society have been forced to pay thousands out of their own pockets when they were entitled to a grant, as yet again this government has shown its complete disregard for people with disabilities as it did when it refused to provide much-needed funding for the NCBI, or for the Irish Deaf Society.
“This is from the same government that dragged its heels on signing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and then refused to sign the optional protocol allowing for complaints to be made the UN.
“The message is loud and clear, if you are living with a disability in this country don’t expect help from our government.
“I am calling on the Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy to make a statement on this most serious cock up and inform the people his department has let down with how he intends to resolve it.”
