Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The national guidelines for the assessment and allocation process for social housing provision for people with disabilities come from my Department and the Senator is probably familiar with them. The guidelines state that the allocation of housing should come first.

It is all about joined-up thinking. When I came into the Department there was a housing strategy and a lot of work had been done on an implementation plan. The only thing I really wanted to do was to make certain that the plan was on point at that time. We did that. There is a huge amount of work done by the officials because the plan has to be fresh and in real time. As the housing disability strategy groups in each local authority are multi-agency, the HSE is involved. When local authorities are looking at people with disabilities and whether they are being housed, if a person has a requirement for a care package, there is an integrated model. On the question of whether local authorities should refuse to allocate on the basis that the care package is not there, the answer is "No". They should allocate based on the first point.

The Senator spoke about the Taoiseach. I cannot comment on that. All I can tell the Senator is that under our implementation plan, our approach to the objective of the strategy is to facilitate disabled people to live independently with appropriate choices and control over where, how and with whom they live to promote their inclusion in the community. This is something I was very keen on because it is an area I am familiar with and on which I have strong views in the context of people with disabilities. It will come down to individual choices. Some people will want to live with their family, in which cases we are moving into the space of the disabled person's grant and the HSE being involved. Equally, there is independent living. For me, it comes down to choice but we must have a process.

I want to get that data from the local authorities. We do not have it at the moment but we will have it from quarter 1 of this year. We have information from the approved housing bodies on the number of people with disabilities they are housing. I do not have that breakdown for local authorities but I will have it from this year. It is all about gathering empirical evidence and having a streamlined system where we implement plans. We can speak about rights, which are hugely important, but, ultimately it is about action on the ground. It is something of which we need to see a lot more. I want to see local authorities engaging more in terms of the funding available to deal with people with disabilities.

We are currently doing a review of the strategy around approved housing bodies and what they provide. That will involve the approved housing bodies. That report will be delivered to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, towards quarter 3 of this year. In summary, I cannot give the Senator a timeline on his first question.