An elderly Inishowen man cannot afford the upfront costs of a mobile home due to red tape in the government’s defective concrete block scheme, Donegal County Council has heard.
Cllr Martin McDermott has this week highlighted the plight of homeowners in need of ancillary grants for alternative accommodation and storage, saying it’s not feasible to expect people to pay €15,000 out of pocket and wait for reimbursement later.
“In the last number of months a lot of people, elderly people want to get a mobile home to put beside their home while it is getting remedial works or demolished, and those people don’t have the €15,000 to pay out to get that €15,000 back,” Cllr McDermott told Monday’s meeting of Donegal County Council.
“One particular elderly man I was with has €4,000/€5,000 saved up for if he and his wife died, to bury them, but he doesn’t have €15,000.
“He’s 82 years of age, he can’t go the bank to get €15,000 because they won’t give it to him.”
The problem extends to many homeowners, Cllr McDermott said: “Some families have mortgages of €1,000 and have to pay another €1,000 to rent a house and they do not have that money.”
Cllr McDermott urged the council to work with the Department of Housing to create ‘a bit of leeway’ to allow homeowners to get funding for ancillary expenses during the build.
Cllr McDermott added: “It doesn’t matter what applicant applies to the scheme, they can never get their final payment until all documentation is submitted to the council. We should be able to come up with something that would allow the payment if an invoice is given in.”
“There has to be a way around this,” he told the council. “It’s totally within our control up until the final payment. I think that would take a lot of stress off a lot of people that have to rent and that are intending to buy a mobile home for living in.”
Cllr McDermott’s motion was passed and Donegal County Council will write to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Director of Service Bryan Cannon responded in support of the motion and said: “We’ll also engage with the Department to try to agree on a protocol as to how this can be practically implemented to help people.”
