Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)

I am conscious of time. I have asked the Minister in parliamentary questions to provide information on the number of service users who are living more than 100 km from home in private for-profit settings. The Department told me in response that it does not keep that information. That is very problematic because if a disabled person is living that kind of distance from home, it is a clear breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In many cases, there is no end in sight to that. The dislocation of a person from his or her family and community is a human rights issue. That information should be provided.

I also was not given wait times for people on waiting lists - often languishing on waiting lists - with ageing parents who are unable to cope. We need to know the wait times people are enduring.

I will briefly ask about private outsourcing of assessments of need. How much is the Department investing in that and by how much is last year's spend increasing?