Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for their contributions. My first question is for the National Advocacy Service. It mentioned housing and that something like 40% of the cases it deals with are to do with housing. People living with intellectual disabilities are still living in group homes and so on. They do not have many choices. How does the National Advocacy Service see that rolling out over the next number of years to try to change that, so that people are able to live independently and are included in the community? Article 19 of the UNCRPD outlines that.

In some cases people with intellectual disabilities get jobs but they are not greatly paid, so we need to address that. The committee issued a report, Enhancing Participation of People with Disabilities, recently and a lot of this was included in the report.