Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives from the Irish Wheelchair Association, the National Disability Authority and everyone else for their presence. In particular, I welcome Senator John Dolan who has an amazing track record in advocating for the disability sector, which I am sure is acknowledged by everyone in both Houses of the Oireachtas.

I thank Mr. Cunningham and Ms Barron for their quality submissions. We received other submissions that we have circulated and read. I thank the representatives for taking us through them again. The strong message that has come across from all of this is that we should provide the capacity to live independently with dignity and respect in the community. A home is more than just a house. Living is more than just a roof over one's head. Living is about being able to access one's community facilities. It is about meaningful engagement in one's community. It is about having equal access to that engagement be it to partake in one's community, employment or whatever. A lot of the committee's emphasis can be about housing, and bricks and mortar but the organisations present went further and rightly so.

Today's meeting is the first of two meetings on housing for people with disabilities and the second meeting is scheduled for 10 July. There will be other representatives from local government and Dublin City Council. Housing is part of a process and what the representatives have shared with us today will feed into the bigger picture of policy, which is welcome.

I was struck by recent research conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission that shows people with disabilities were twice as likely to experience discrimination when accessing housing, which is profound and disturbing. We need to do something about the situation. I make that point because it came out in the literature. I was not fully aware of such discrimination and only had anecdotal evidence. However, the other day I spoke to a woman who lives in one of the Dublin local authority areas and she has waited nearly 12 years for housing. Every time she approaches her authority she is told she can have accommodation eight or nine miles away from where her supports are located. I mean the people who care about her, love her and are there for her. When she makes her case she is told that she is choosy and difficult, which she finds very frustrating. She needs to live on the groundfloor. She also needs to be able to access a community on the street because that is where she goes out to read her newspaper. Her limited access allows her to get out in and around there.

Earlier today it was clearly confirmed that the targets and timelines to transition people with disabilities away from congregated settings have not been reached. That is extremely disappointing because this is a group of people who have historically had other issues and difficulties. The decongregation and transference of people from institutional care back into the community was flagged as being a progressive bit of work. I live near one of these institutions that is now closed. The people did not have happy experiences on many occasions and were forced out. The move was not altogether about making facilities better for them. They were taken many miles away from where they had lived for ten years and away from where they had built friendships and relationships. Clearly this is a very important issue so what is the problem with accessing housing? These people live in congregated settings. The Government policy is to close these places down and get people out. I always argue that there will be some people who want to stay in more formal residential settings. Housing has to be all about rights and choices. I have met people who have been forced to move from community settings into independent living arrangements but were not given supports and, therefore, did not like the new arrangement. We must respect all aspects of this issue. This is about empowering a person to make decisions about where he or she wants to live. I ask the witnesses to share their views on this matter. Is there a process of review? If so, what is the review mechanism? What do the witnesses think about Departments and relevant agencies in terms of people being moved from congregated settings into communities? Why is the transition not happening as fast as first envisioned? What are the pitfalls and problems? How does one overcome the pitfalls and problems?

Can the witnesses share with us their experiences of how local authorities have addressed the public housing needs for people with disabilities? In my experience, some local authorities are good and progressive yet other authorities tell people they do not have the facilities. The Part V obligation was mentioned by one of the witnesses. Sometimes local authorities offset developments, particularly small one-off developments by taking money or by dealing with other issues but these strike me as ideal situations.

The following point was well made in one of the submissions. We do not want disability zones. We want people living meaningfully right across the community so it strikes me that there are opportunities for one-off units, particularly in the private sector. We need to ensure that the target of 7% happens in both the public and private sectors. Also, there are elderly people who have different degrees of disability. I ask the witnesses to talk me through this aspect.

The Part V obligation is very contentious in some local authorities and they are not delivering. I ask the witnesses to comment further on the issue.

The RIAI has given us a brief questions and answers submission, which the witnesses have not seen. I am sure that the committee will be happy to circulate it to the witnesses. The RIAI compared this country with other European countries and said: "We understand that Ireland has no mandatory standards for either accessible or adaptable housing", and it is badly needed, with which I agree. I ask the witnesses to talk us through how they advocate for that because if the work of this committee is to have meaning and take the work of the delegations further, then clearly we need mandatory standards in legislation.

Finally, I wish to draw attention to Fingal County Council as it has recently drawn up an excellent document entitled 10 Ways To Construct A More Lifetime Adaptable and Age Friendly Home. The document is really positive and conveys its message simply. I appeal to the organisations present to not only engage with local authorities but to engage with the elected members of local authorities because they will find them to be advocates who will advocate for the objectives that we all want. Sometimes we tend to rely on the executive, architects and housing officials, be they in local authorities or Departments. I suggest that the organisations present would be much more effective as well as keeping them onboard to advocate and to have a similar engagement with them as they are having with us here. I urge them to have that engagement with local authorities because it would be fruitful and generate good results.

Again, well done. I thank the witnesses for their very detailed submissions and ask them to address the few queries that I have raised.