Mr. Ger Deering:

I want to be clear. The HSE is not the issue here. To be fair to the HSE, that report was done by Peter Tyndall in 2021 and the HSE accepted the recommendations. It was slow in implementation because we ran into Covid. However, I am really pleased with and impressed by what the HSE has done over the past two years because the project requires a lot of advance work. One of the people who transitioned out last year had been 35 years in a nursing home. He had an accident at 21 years of age and it took 35 years until something more appropriate was found. You do not just transition somebody. There is about a two-year lead-in to the programme. The HSE has done a lot of work on preparing people and working with NGOs to identify suitable people to transition out. Equally important, there is the EQLS programme, which might get someone an accessible or motorised wheelchair, iPad or television to try to allow that person to live a more normal life in that setting. I got an email about three weeks ago from a lady thanking us. She had not interacted with us nor made a complaint to us but she was aware that, through the wasted lives project, she got a motorised wheelchair. Her words, not mine, were that, after six years, she could get out of prison and was going to be downtown every day this summer.

It is really important to point out that people are not asking for much. The HSE has transitioned 101 people. It is not enough, but it is a really good start. My problem with the scheme is that there is no funding for it. That is unforgivable because the scheme is working. The advance work has been done. The term that worried me most in the update I got last November from the HSE was something to the effect that it was now having to manage expectations. Having done all the advance work and having had people ready to move out, there is no funding for the scheme.