Dr. Kathleen MacLellan:

There are currently 2,087 people in congregated settings. We share the Deputy's view that it is important to increase the pace of this programme. Given the amount we have learned in recent years, we feel that we can do so. The targets within the service plan are very important. They set a clear focus that allows us to see if we are meeting the targets and if people are being decongregated in the appropriate and correct way. It is important that we get this move right for people and that they move into the community they choose. It is important they have a choice of who to live with and that we support them and provide them with the wraparound services they need when they move out of a congregated setting and into the community. The HSE has to provide a whole new model of support. There has been significant effort to move that model on. It has meant change for staff in how they deliver services and it has meant a change to the kinds of services and supports we provide in the community. Our current policy is that no one new enters congregated settings. There is therefore no expectation that the numbers within congregated settings will increase. Our policy is to reduce that number and to enhance the pace at which we move people back into the community so that they can be moved as early and as swiftly as possible, bearing in mind the age profile of these individuals and the length of time they have spent in congregated settings.

With regard to the obstacles to which the Deputy referred, it is about shifting and changing the health system's whole model of care to a social model. It has to be acknowledged that the HSE has committed significant work, effort, time and training to do this. It is about supporting the rights of individuals and supporting them to move to where they wish to move in the way in which they wish to do so. It is about trying to get that right in the first instance. I mentioned earlier that the National Disability Authority is evaluating decongregation. We welcome this, and all the early information which has come from it, because it helps us to re-engineer or reorganise how we are going to deliver that programme of decongregation. This involves significant learning. We would all acknowledge that decongregation has been a significant programme and wholly new for the country. We see that as a priority.