Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I want to make a couple of points about decongregation, but before I do, I want to register my strong opinion that we need to move as quickly as possible on the Part M issue, from new builds ticking the boxes on visitation to new builds being good for people with disabilities to live in. This needs to happen as quickly as possible.

With regard to decongregation, from what is being said, ten years ago approximately 4,000 people were living in congregated settings and this has been reduced by 50% to the position today, which is 2,087 people. My understanding is there was a target that decongregation would be complete by 2019. I ask the witnesses to correct me if I am wrong in this regard. We have missed the target. Reasons have been given but we have missed the target. I do not want to dwell on this. I want to focus more on the question of reaching the target. I am concerned at the figure given for 2019, which I believe was 160 people. I calculate roughly that at this rate we will complete decongregation in 13 years, in the year 2032, but only if nobody goes into congregated settings in the meantime. At the current rate of progress, we are looking at a best-case scenario of decongregation in the 2030s. We need to do better than this. What are the obstacles that exist? I am interested to hear information on this. Are they primarily financial obstacles? If not, what is their character? I would like to tease this out. I might come back in on this but I would like to hear a reply on it.