Ms Derval McDonagh:

That is a brilliant example. It is horrific that what Mr. Alford describes, with those false options being provided to him, was the reality. Mr. Alford and others were told they could either go and rent themselves or go and live with somebody they did not know and that they would be back in three months' time. That happens to people all of the time because they do not have the support to make decisions. Ms Byrne and Ms Condon have spoken about that. Deputy Cairns asked about real-world examples. This is happening all the time. I mentioned in the opening statement that the most fundamental things about people's lives, such as where they would live as human beings, are being decided by committees. There are committees meeting across the country looking at where people will move in emergencies. The disabled person is probably not in the room or involved in that conversation and his or her family may not be in the room either.

I had the experience of working with a family recently. The elderly mother was in her 80s and her son was in his 50s. She has Alzheimer's disease and a lot of issues and it was deemed that this was an emergency. She is from north Cork and had lived there for her entire life with her son. They were close to one another and had a fantastic relationship. However, she knew she was at a stage where she could not continue and because it was deemed an emergency, her son was offered a place in north Kerry. I had to show her where the town was on the map and she said she would never see him again if he moved there. That is happening all of the time. We are deciding on people's lives by committee and it is horrific. We really need to move on from that. That is just one example.

We have all spoken about leadership. We need vision and we need people to stand up, be courageous and say this is enough. Alongside that, we need a well thought-out and fully-costed plan for how we will do this incrementally in the coming years because people are suffering. Ms Condon mentioned it and all of the examples from the National Advocacy Service bore that out. People are waiting and have their lives on hold. That is not good enough in 2023.