Dr. Nat O'Connor:

Overall, we would like to see a strategic approach. As a society, we are not ready to meet all of the unmet housing needs for older persons, given the pace at which the numbers of older persons are growing. Ms Murphy earlier mentioned many things with regard to unmet needs and there are two additional things to consider. Many of the calls we get about the fair deal scheme are from people who are uncertain about how it works. There is a lot of worry and concern in that regard. Some people are not making applications under the scheme and are instead taking out credit union loans because they are afraid of the scheme. There is a need to explain the fair deal scheme to people and reassure them about what is happening. That is even more the case now as we change the rental rules.

Another thing to consider is the local authority assessment of housing need that happens under the Housing Act. At the moment, there is a narrow examination of how many social housing units will be needed. That could be broadened out to consider the full range of housing needs, including the supports people will need to stay in their homes or the needs people might have to right-size and so on. A wider definition there, and a wider duty for the local authority, might help, on an area-by-area basis, to identify the needs of older persons and their desire, as the Senator said, to age in their communities and not just be ignored because they are currently in a house. Just because a person is in a house does not mean he or she does not have many unmet housing needs.