A Co Kildare mother of 12 is calling on the Government to set funding aside urgently to meet the €5 million backlog for the Disabled Person's Grant (DPG) in the county.
Ms Josie Purcell from Newbridge has been waiting four years for an extension for a bedroom/en suite bathroom for her 18-year-old daughter, Lindsey, who suffers from cerebral palsy.
"We got a letter last year from Kildare County Council to say they were not looking at our case. They said we were not a priority. Lindsey is sharing a small room with Amy, who has Downs Syndrome, and two of my other daughters. She has no space of her own and the shower is not suitable at all.
"I am not just highlighting our case, there are other cases, not just with children, but with adults with special needs. I think everything comes back to the Government. We are just looking for our rights. We are entitled to a grant for Lindsey," said Josie.
The DPG is administered by Kildare County Council where homes need to be adapted for people with special needs and the elderly. Local authorities put up one- third of the funding and the Department of Environment funds the remainder.
In Kildare, Lindsey is one of 270 applicants who have been left in limbo since the council suspended taking applications last June due to a lack of finance. In this year's budget it has allocated €1.5 million, the highest amount it has ever put into the DPGs, but it said that would only clear priority cases.
Local councillor Ms Suzanne Doyle said given that there is €5 million of a backlog, the council will not be taking in any new applications for three years.
Another councillor, Ms Catherine Murphy, pointed out that Kildare had the lowest per head of population allocation for 2004 in the country, with €5.70 per person for the DPG and essential repairs grant. She said Leitrim, with a population of 25,815, got €103.43 per person.
Speaking on behalf of the Kildare Network for People with Disabilities, Ms Mary Dunne said: "People are left waiting. They are finding it so frustrating. There isn't even a sign of when they will start again, it could take six months, a year, two years."
A spokesman for the council said a review at strategic policy level was due to come before the council in February or March. "We will, later in the year, examine whether it is possible to open the scheme to new applications." He said the Department of Environment is also reviewing the scheme. "If tomorrow morning we were to come into the funding that would allow us to re-open the applications we would be happy to administer that funding," he said.
He said the reason for the backlog was over-subscription to the system, an increase in the cost of building, an increase in the population, and the fact that the system was not income related. He said councillors had adopted a resolution for the return of the €175,000 spent on e-voting to be put into the DPGs.