Cork County Council to hire therapists to clear house grant backlog

Cork County Council is to employ its own occupational therapists to clear a backlog of claims for housing adaptation grants because the HSE does not have the personnel to manage the job.

Council chief executive Tim Lucey said the local authority was going to take action to address the situation after a number of councillors said delays in adapting houses for the sick and disabled were causing serious hardship.

The issue was raised at a meeting in County Hall by Fianna Fáil councillor Frank O’Flynn, who said he was inundated with cases where people cannot get housing adaptation grants passed because they have to be signed off by occupational therapists, and there are not enough employed by the HSE to handle the backlog.