Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

The simple answer is "Yes". As we set out in our briefing, we determine at the start of what is an extensive process the cost of keeping the existing level of service going, of additional demographic pressures and of the developments that the Department would like to put in place to go beyond meeting the current level of need and ensure that the difficulty being faced by one individual in trying to access that service pool does not worsen year on year due to demographics. There is also the question of pent-up or latent demand in the form of people who are on waiting lists and even those who are not.

We know how much it would cost or how much could be usefully invested in home supports. We share that information with colleagues in the Department on an annual basis. However, the State has a certain amount of total resources. It allocates those resources and we must operate within that. In fairness to the State, it asks whether there could be greater efficiency for the €16 billion plus being spent.