Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for their contribution. Without people like them advocating as they do for people with disabilities, I shudder to think of where we would be. Article 19 of the UNCRPD gives equal rights for people with disabilities to live in communities with choice equal to others. That is a principle that we all stand by. The commitment in the programme for Government to eliminating the practice of placing people with disabilities in congregated settings was mentioned earlier. We need full implementation of that but we have not even signed up to the optional protocol. It has not been ratified, which is a big hindrance. I would love to hear what the witnesses think about that. We should be pushing the Government to sign up to that. It is an indicator of not being properly committed to people with disabilities.

The witnesses mentioned that one in four homeless people have a disability. I assume that when one looks at the housing waiting lists, the numbers would be comparable. I have experienced a lot with people on the housing waiting lists who have disabilities, whether intellectual or physical disabilities. Dealing with local authorities is appalling and the waiting lists and time taken are horrendous. I did not think about what was said earlier about private landlords. I do not know how that is engaged with. That is probably a difficult area. If someone with a disability has a private landlord, I think engagement would be difficult. I would love to hear people's thoughts on that.

There is an obvious issue with people getting adaptations from local authorities. With the cost of living, the prices for adaptations need to change dramatically. Apart from that, what people receiving disability allowance are getting needs to be looked at carefully. With the way the cost of living has gone, it is not possible to sustain that.

What Mr. Alford said was interesting. It upset me to listen to how long it took him to get from A to B. I found all the different obstacles he faced upsetting. I would love to hear more about how he got there. I have read what he has said but it is disturbing to see that people with disabilities are taking so long to get there.

On acquired brain injuries, I heard what the witnesses said about what funding would be required to cover assessment teams and a case manager in each CHO area. Some €4 million or €5 million seems like a small sum. I do not know what impact this is having on the Government. This committee should certainly be pushing for it. We probably will push and make an argument about that. I have experience of dealing with people with brain injuries. It is quite difficult for them to get supports, apply for housing or try to be independent. Will the witnesses elaborate further on how that can be done? The number of places across the country to help people like that is very limited and that needs to change.

We need a rights-based approach to support and care for people with disabilities. Is something missing in what we are all trying to do? Is there something further that we need to do in making an argument about different areas? Has anyone any ideas of how we can go further in making cases?

We spoke about nursing homes. We have different housing complexes like Housing Association for Integrated Living, HAIL, housing, which looks after people with mental health difficulties. What are the witnesses' thoughts about these type of complexes, which are dedicated and have supports on hand? Does that take a bit of individuality away from people? I do not know. Could the witnesses give us their thoughts on that?