Mr. Enda Egan:

The residential services in congregated settings have done quite well during the crisis. I am sad to say that approximately 13 people have passed away in congregated settings across the period of the pandemic. In general, approximately 0.17% of the population in congregated settings contracted Covid-19. The service providers did very well in that respect. Where there were outbreaks, the average number of people involved in those outbreaks in disability services was six, in comparison to 20 in nursing homes.

That leads to the serious issue we cannot remain complacent about, namely, a second wave of Covid-19. The wider issue has already been debated here this morning. If one looks back to 2012, the Government introduced a policy and report, Time to Move on from Congregated Settings: A Strategy for Community Inclusion. At that point, approximately 3,900 people were living in congregated settings, according to figures from the HSE. The average number of people being decongregated since then has been approximately 135 per year. The Government stated in 2012 that all congregated settings were to be decongregated.