Almost €1.5 million spent on grants for elderly and disabled

A total of €1,449,721 was spent by in the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad on adaptation grants for elderly and disabled people last year. The grants are for the elderly or people with a disability to assist them to carry out works necessary to make a house more suitable for the accommodation of a person who has an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual impairment. The grants afford people an opportunity to continue to live in the community, rather than going into residential care.

The grants are seen as a highly cost-effective way of saving the Irish state tens of millions in potential nursing home and hospital care costs. The figure spent came to light when Cllr Andrew Duncan put in a query about the waiting time for inspections for adaptation grants for elderly and disabled people.

The executive of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad informed the chamber that they currently have 104 applications on hand due for inspection. The number of applications approved for grants will depend on the budget allocation for 2026. The local authority ranks the applications on a three tier priority system.

At present the Priority 1 (P1) applications continue to be inspected, while P2 applications prior to June 2025 and P3 applications prior to October 2024 are being inspected.

There were a total of 272 applications received in 2025, of those 161 applications were approved in 2025. Additional funding was secured in 2025 which allowed for 157 grants to be paid totalling €1,449,721.

This allowed the local authority to spend €496,669 on P1 cases, €803,481 on P2 and €149,571 on P3 cases.

There were 27 applications which were approved but not completed in 2025. The value of these grants is €482,607 and this will be funded from the 2026 budget.