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

I thank Genio, Ascend and the Crann Centre for their input. From what I have heard, I have much to learn because a lot of it was not familiar to me. I have not been on this committee for long and I am trying to learn what is happening across the country.

When I was listening to the statements, I got the impression that much of this is Munster based in terms of the activities. There is much philanthropy in terms of support and funding. Applications have been made to the Departments to get more stable funding, which is essential for all of the organisations. I found the 2Gen approach interesting in that it takes in family members, including the person who has the disability. I would like to hear a bit more about this because it seems to be a very good approach. My experience has been that in many cases when people who have a disability, whether an intellectual or a physical disability, get older, we often find that those around them die or move on and they are left on their own. They have no family supports around them. I often see this in my constituency. While much of what we have heard here is about the structures around that person, I find that people are left isolated. How do we deal with that?

In terms of housing, as was mentioned, research was done on people who were living in complexes, where there would have been a significant number of people with disabilities, and who ended up in the community. I refer to HAIL Housing, for instance, which provides mental health and others supports. I would have thought that was a good model. However, the witnesses focused on trying to get people back to the areas they are from. I am curious about the attitude to these types of complexes and what people think of them.

Many of the things I have heard here are new to me. The 2Gen approach is very interesting and it has come mainly from America. It has been imported here through Crann. Are there any plans to expand this further? Obviously, the economic issue is a big one but are there plans to expand this? In Munster, it has grown from 300, with a target of up to 600 over the next couple of years. Maybe the witnesses will explain to us whether it is possible to expand this over the next while.