Mr. Mark O'Connor:

It depends. We have spoken a little about data, but it depends what number one looks at. The HSE tells us there are approximately 2,000 people in congregated settings, but the folks in HIQA who go out and inspect these places tell us there are approximately 2,900, so there is a significant number of people in these settings. A policy has been in place for almost nine years to move people out. It saddens me to say that up to this point people in these settings have had as good a chance of passing away in a congregated setting as being moved out to a community setting. What we do know, however, and what comes up in HIQA's annual reports, and we have done some research ourselves, as has the National Disability Authority, is that people's lives improve significantly when they move to smaller, community-based settings in line with their own wishes and desires, living in their own homes, such as all of us here do, being supported to do the ordinary things one does in one's own home and accessing community services. Even HIQA's annual report from this year states that people lead lives that are not in line with human rights and that in larger residential settings there are issues in protecting people, safeguarding and human rights issues.