Ms Fiona O'Donovan:

Certainly. I thank the Deputy for engaging so substantively with the points. To pick up on the issue of social housing allocation, I believe the Deputy is referring to the Part M regulations and requirements around allocating certain proportions of developments of a certain size for social housing and, thereunder, for people with disabilities. An issue to flag in respect of the Part M regulations is that they require that a newly-built unit of accommodation of whatever type must be visitable by a person with a disability, for example, a person using a wheelchair. I note, however, that "visitable" is very different from "liveable". A person may be able to get in the door and get to the living room and kitchen, but will there be access to the toilet or to the bedrooms? Can a person have full use and enjoyment of the house and of the garden, should there be one? There are issues in that regard.

There are also issues in respect of linking up the requirement for accessible housing with the number of those being given social housing assessments and their needs. Significant inroads have been made in that regard, for example, social housing needs assessments are now yearly rather than every three years. That will help in giving more informed detail. There also have been moves to thread allocations through the housing disability steering group, which is informed by people with disabilities and people who support such people and which informs the council's planning and provision of social housing. That will also help, but it all takes time to bed down. In the interim, the number of people who are having difficulties in accessing social housing or, for that matter, private housing is building. That is one thing to flag.

As to whether people with disabilities are faring proportionately well in terms of housing, the answer is that people with disabilities represent the second largest group of people on social housing waiting lists after homeless people. We hear of the homelessness crisis but we do not hear of a crisis in respect of inaccessible or inappropriate housing for people with disabilities. Make no mistake, however, the lack of accommodation for people with disabilities is a crisis within a crisis.

Members should not make a mistake. The lack of appropriate accommodation for people with disabilities is a crisis within a crisis. As the Government tries to implement its policies around de-congregation, it needs accessible housing in the community. If that is not synching up, all that will happen is that blockage will be pushed down the line.

Coming back to the overlap and the concept of budget proofing, one in four people who are homeless have a disability. That is not how the issue is talked about. Homelessness, older persons and disability are seen as discrete areas because that is the main basis on which assessment is allocated. There needs to be a rethinking of that.