Mr. Christy Lynch:

On the issue of the number of people and whom they live with, I think the Disability Federation of Ireland published a report some years ago called "Locked Up at Home". That was about people with disabilities who have their own homes, but because they do not have the supports they need to get out of those houses, they are effectively not able to live the life that they need to and to participate and do all of the things that the convention talks about. I think the number is important and we deliberated long and hard about putting the number at no more than four. I always say the strapline for the report is no more than four. One can argue whether it should be five or three, but we went with no more than four. I am giving evidence here in the form of empirical data. The reason for that - going back to the UNCRPD definition of institution - is that when one goes to five, six, seven or eight, the chances of meeting the criteria outlined increase. The number is very important. What we say in the report is that we should be looking at all kinds of things, but if there is going to be shared living, people should choose who they live with, as the convention says, but there should never be more than four people in one shared living arrangement. We should not allow people to cluster housing, for example, to have two four-bedroom houses side-by-side. There are very good reasons that recommendation is in the report.