A chara, - Your recent Editorial on the Disabled Persons' Housing Grants scheme (March 7th) made for very unhappy reading in this, the European Year of People with Disabilities.
This scheme could be immensely important in helping many people to live independently in their own homes, with dignity, in safety, and with some degree of convenience.
Unfortunately, the scheme has a number of fundamental aspects which led to it being described recently as "a shambles" by the Irish Wheelchair Association.
First, it is capped financially, and therefore consists of a form of grant offered subject to funding availability and at the discretion or discrimination of the managing authority. By contrast it should be an entitlement to be paid once need is demonstrated and eligibility agreed. This is at the heart of the matter.
The second core problem is the bureaucratic quagmire of the scheme's administration, being managed separately and in many cases differently by each local authority, all in turn seeking input from the medical officers and occupational therapists of the relevant health board. This is both costly and inefficient involving a structure that is totally disproportionate to the scale and monetary value of the scheme. It leads to significant differences in attitude to implementation, and inevitably leads to delay in processing applications.
Such delays cause untold difficulties, especially for older applicants. Delay will also significantly erode the financial value of any grant eventually made under the present scheme, as inflation pushes up the cost of work to be done while an application languishes awaiting attention or funding. The scheme must be revised to allow approval in principle to be given, before plans are prepared and detailed prices calculated.
This scheme can transform the day-to-day lives of people with disabilities when it is well and efficiently applied. It urgently needs a fundamental overhaul to ensure that it consistently serves those who need it. - Is mise,
PAUL de FREINE, Shankill, Co Dublin.