Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I join with others in thanking all of the witnesses for giving their time this morning. The debate has been really interesting and instructive for all of us to listen to their comments and hear about their experiences and views. I appreciate that along with all of my colleagues. It is very nice to see Mr. John Dolan back here, as he is a former Seanad colleague.

I am conscious that a great deal of issues have been covered already and all of us are conscious of the immense impact that Covid has and is having on persons with disabilities. My first question is on the closure of congregated settings. The issue has been covered extensively and I hear the chilling point that was made about the number of people who died in congregated settings. I am conscious that there is still quite a number of people in congregated settings despite the commitment to close them by 2018. Was that not the original commitment?

I take the point about the difficulty with decoupling funding from service providers where people move out of congregated settings into supported living arrangements. A charity closed a residential service that operated in St. Mary's Centre Telford, which is located in my own area. The closure had an immensely hard and difficult impact on the lives of the people, mostly women, who had been resident for so long and it was their only home.

There was no clear alternative in place. I do not know if there is anything we can do, as legislators, so that there are proper step-down and other supports in place where congregated settings are closed, especially for people who have been resident in them for many years and who may be very vulnerable and really open to terrible trauma through closure.

My second point is a very different one, which is to pick up on the creation and establishment of the new coalition, the disability, participation and consultation network. I very much welcome that. At an earlier meeting of this committee I asked the Minster of State, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, about her experience on coming into this sector and about the very many groups that currently represent so many different people and interests within the broad community of persons with disabilities. The Minister of State said that there is a huge number of such groups. Any co-ordination is very welcome and it is good to see. It will only strengthen the advocacy. How can we as legislators support the new network? What is the best way for us to engage with the network to ensure that the voices of those with a disability are heard at policy-making level?