Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My apologies for an earlier absence as I was in the Chamber for questions. I did not get them all but I got 50%, which is a reasonable enough innings in this business. I thank the witnesses for their presentations, the combination of which is an all-round addressing of the issues affecting people who have special needs and who have a disability. I thank the witnesses for their work in the field over the years.

Inclusion Ireland's name speaks for itself. Inclusion is a very important word in the context of people who have a disability, whatever the disability may be. It is always of great benefit to them to feel they are being included as opposed to feeling another response. Notwithstanding the difficulties the State had to face over the past eight years, it was a really awful problem. There were no resources, no matter where one came from. At every corner there was somebody tugging at resources that had diminished and gone down the drain. It was an appalling situation and all credit is due to the organisations that cover disability, voluntary and statutory, for managing to come through that awful period. They were not unscathed but they survived it and that is important.

My colleague raised the question about young people in nursing homes. This continues to be the case and I do not know why. Some of us have concerns around decongregation. We know from previous experience that decongregation works well, in theory, as long as one has an alternative place and there are sufficient resources for the location to meet the developmental needs of the people going there. Those developmental needs vary considerable, depending on the age of the people and their abilities to fend for themselves to become self-sufficient.

I have always held the view that any person, whether he or she is able-bodied or has a disability, has a contribution to make to the economic and social well-being of the community. People do this by being provided with the facilities to use their own resources in terms of participation and involvement. I strongly support the concept of enabling people to participate. All the groups here have done that all along. Maximising the potential of the individual to the best of his or her ability is the simple, short answer. As long as it remains the objective, it will succeed.

I am a little concerned about decongregation. Different people may have various reasons for supporting it. What this committee has expressed concerns about in the past is the fact that organisations appear to be distancing themselves from participation in the provision of accommodation in congregated settings. A number of them appear to be that way inclined. I do not want to go too much into detail lest I set off a scare but, as the Chairman knows, we have addressed the issue previously. There is some evidence to suggest that the removal of some service providers will leave a void that cannot be filled in its entirety in the normal course of events through the provision of alternatives. I am still concerned about it. Decongregation took place many years ago in the bigger mental hospitals and it did not work to the extent we thought it would because some people, who had been institutionalised over a long number of years, found it difficult to adapt to the new settings. The necessary supports to enable them to adapt to those settings were not in place. It is the same as discharging from hospital a person who was injured as a result of an accident or who had a mental breakdown before he or she is ready to go back into the community and cater for himself or herself again. I would like to be reassured on that point. I am not so happy about what happened in the 1980s when people were displaced from the mental institutions. We agreed that those institutions were not suitable places; they were appalling. There were young kids in similar situations along with much older people. They were appalling places. When we set out to improve their situation and their conditions, we need to do it in a methodical way that is fully supportive and takes account of all the possibilities that may arise in the event of that change taking place. Concerns have been expressed in the House by many people from all over the country. It is not the concept of decongregation we are concerned about but its effect on the individual.