Longford to reap dividends of almost €800k in housing adaptation grants

Longford Westmeath Fine Gael TD Peter Burke and his constituency government colleague, Minister of State for the OPW Kevin 'Boxer' Moran have both given their ringing endorsement to the news.

Mr Burke, in revealing the approximate €794,290 being made available locally, urged applicants to send in their submissions in order to help them stay in their own homes for longer.

“Older people and people with disabilities in Longford are going to benefit from new Government funding designed to help them adapt their homes to improve their mobility and access," he said.

“This is to help people return home from hospital earlier, and also to support older people and people with disabilities to remain living independently in their own homes for as long as they wish.

“The Housing Adaptation Grant helps people to make changes and adaptations to their home to better cater for their needs. This could include making it wheelchair-accessible, extending it to create more space, adding a ground-floor bathroom or toilet or adding a stair-lift.   

Grants of up to €30,000 are available to assist people with a disability in carrying out necessary works and up to €8,000 to assist older people living in poor housing conditions to have necessary repairs or improvements carried out. Up to €6,000 is also available for mobility aids.

Mr Moran was just as upbeat over the announcement.

"This is great news for the constituency and the level of funding has been increased this year allowing for a greater number of projects to be funded," he said.