Ms Louise Loughlin:

On the approved housing bodies, there are a small number that provide those specific services and we work well with them. It is not without issues but it is a far more successful model than the traditional one-size-fits-all local authority-type housing. In Ireland we also have quite a bit of practice of disability service providers still being actively involved in the provision of housing. There was an example in the news last week of a mother who ended up transferring the title of her house over to a disability service provider in order to secure the provision of that home for her adult son with an intellectual disability following her own passing. They were happy that was the right solution for them as a family, which is fantastic, but it also speaks to the issues we have in that it was a family home and somehow or other it has ended up being transferred to a disability service provider. That might be okay in a one-off situation but it probably points to a bigger issue about ensuring we have an adequate supply of housing for people with disabilities that meets their own needs. One thing we have also come across on the housing piece is that sometimes when people are offered either housing from the local authority or when they are stepping down, to use that term, from a large institution, it can be very far away from their home place. It could be an out-of-county placement. That is quite acute in County Dublin and it goes out beyond there, so people who might have a work placement or a whole community or a day service they attend, but what they are being offered is housing. It is unsustainable for them. We would not ask anyone else to live so far away from their home supports. That is part of the bigger picture of the housing crisis we are in. There is more to be done under the national housing strategy in terms of enhancing the role of those approved housing bodies with those specific remits. They can deliver more bespoke services for people with their own particular needs.

On prisons, there is no open door per seto advocacy. Our role with regard to prisons is more when people come out. Another perennial problem is prisoners leaving prisons and not being able to access the appropriate supports, particularly around housing. We often see people going through the criminal justice process and support them to help them understand the advocacy process. That can be a person appearing as a witness or an accused person, particularly in the complex situation of someone with multiple health disability-type issues as it can be really challenging for them to understand what is going on. The legal profession and the courts are not necessarily equipped to provide those supports so that is another area we provide.

Another area of our work is with parents with disabilities, particularly intellectual disabilities, and their interactions with the State in terms of housing. I think Senator Seery-Kearney mentioned this morning, for example, when they are in acute mental health settings and perhaps having interactions with TUSLA. About 15% of our work is supporting parents with disabilities who are going through childcare processes under the Child Care Act 1991. This can often involve care orders brought by TUSLA seeking to bring a child into care. That is a whole other session that I would urge the committee to have a look at. It is an area of massive complexity. These things are all interlinked. If you do not have the right housing or supports around you, you are more likely to struggle with your parenting. Many of the people who come into that system are people who might have gone to mainstream school or people with quite a mild intellectual disability who have been quite successful in their own terms. They have gone to mainstream school and may have secured employment and housing but when they become parents, that is when they start to struggle with their parenting skills perhaps because they have not been adequately supported. Everything then starts to crumble around them. I know that is not exactly on-topic this morning, but these matters are interconnected. There is more work to be done on prisoners and there is definitely a role for advocacy for prisoners in terms of getting ready for life outside of prison, how they are accessing supports, their interactions, maintaining family relationships and all of those things..