I warmly welcome the restoration of the Housing Grants for pensioners which had been suspended by Dublin City Council for almost a year now. Fresh applications are being accepted from Monday 5th July. The City Council have now cleared the backlog of applications on the old grant. A budget of over €14m has been set aside to meet the needs of senior citizens applying under the grant. There are three strands to the grant:

• Housing Aid for Older People – a 100% grant in owner-occupied homes, where they are beyond repair, of up to €10,500 for structural repairs to roofs, rewiring, heating, water, sanitary services. The grant no longer covers replacement windows. It covers central heating where there is no system but only boiler replacement where there is an existing heating system.
• Mobility Aids – a 100% grant of up to €6,000 to address mobility problems, certified by a doctor (e.g. rails, ramps, stair-lifts and level access showers) in owned or private rented home.
• Housing Adaptation (Disability) – a 95% grant of up to €30,000 to adapt a home to suit the needs of a person with an enduring disability (e.g. downstairs toilet/showers, wheelchair adaptation, extension, etc.) in owned or private rented homes. The works must be certified necessary by a doctor and may require an Occupational Therapist Report.

The full grants above apply if the gross income of the owner and their spouse is less than €30,000, dropping on a graduated basis to 30% for incomes €54,000–€65,000.

Cowen’s Defence of Record Blown Away by Devastating Critique of Policy Failures

The independent expert witnesses have had their say and have found that Brian Cowen and the banking and regulatory systems he oversaw were guilty of spectacular and catastrophic failures of economic management with ordinary taxpayers left to pay the price for this failure. Read the full story

Hello,

Thanks for clicking onto my new website. I hope it is a useful resource for local news and information on your entitlements. You can also follow the work I do for Dublin North Central and in the Dail.

We can build a stronger local community by developing new initiatives to help our children do better in School, to help patients get quicker access to care, to make criminals think twice because of a high likelihood of being caught. I keep a close eye on how these local services are getting on.

Ireland is facing huge economic challenges. Mistakes by bankers, regulators and politicians are now severely hurting families and small and medium sized businesses. Rather than sit back and watch the crisis unfold, Fine Gael is ready to take bold and urgent corrective action to fix Ireland:
 Fix the Public Finances
 Fix the Banks
 Fix the Health Service
 Create Jobs
 Foster innovation and restore competitiveness

If you’d like to help out or volunteer I’d love to hear from you. If I can be of assistance in any matter please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Best Wishes,

Richard