Mr. Michael Hegarty:

On the numbers of people, the HSE used to have a system called the national intellectual disability database, NIDD, which collected information. It was like a census for people with disabilities. That was changed in recent years to the NASS system. There are 74,000 people on that system, of which 29,000 are adults with disabilities. It has identified that there are 1,700 adults with intellectual disabilities who will require residential care in the next five years. In the 2024 budget, there is provision for 90 residential placements. If that is multiplied over the five years, that is 450, so it is coming in at about 25%. We know the Minister of State with responsibility for disability is fighting extremely hard for the sector, more than we have ever seen before, and I am in the sector for more than 20 years, but it is still falling very short of what is required and the revenue to be able to support those people.

That is compounded by decongregation and the costs involved in that. The economy of scale for supporting people is being lost through decongregation, which has to happen. Ms Nagle mentioned funding for disability within housing and the possibility for it to be ring-fenced, and we are looking at that. We are a small housing body. We build one for ourselves perhaps every three or five years. However, those who are getting those should ring-fence them not just for persons with disability but also disability organisations like us so that we can have access to them to be able to support those we know will not be able to look after themselves.

We also know there are about 1,400 adults with disabilities living with parents over 70 years of age. It is a sad state of affairs for those families. Those parents and their families have given this State enough service and, as they head into their elder years, they deserve to know their loved ones will be cared for appropriately, ideally within their own community and not sent outside it.

That is what St. Joseph's Foundation and other organisations across the national federation strive to do and we are advocating on their behalf all of the time. If we were able to get commitments in order to be able to initially resource and build these houses, either through CAS funding, buying them or retrofitting them, we could do it but there is no multi-annual plan at the moment. In the absence of that we cannot do it.