Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome all our guests and thank them for attending the meeting to discuss this extremely important matter. I have a number of comments and questions in response to the opening statements and around the Wasted Lives document. The issue of data was raised here last week in the context of other issues involving disability. The issue comes up again in this context because it is mentioned several times in our guests' opening statements. I should say I am referring to the significant lack of data on the number of people under 65 living in nursing homes. Why are there not proper records of that sort of information? The only records seem to pertain to the nursing home support scheme. How can a health service operate without accurate data to plan for the future?

The disability capacity review is also mentioned and we know about the Indecon report on the cost of disability. I believe both of those have been finalised and yet have not been published. It is extremely important that they are published so that plans can be made for people with disabilities going forward, preferably in time for budget 2022.

Are there cost comparisons between nursing home care and care in the community? Has that analysis been done and do we know what that is?

There needs to be a properly resourced early discharge programme for people who have suffered injury through illness, accident or assault. The Irish Heart Foundation found that 18,000 days were being used by people who were staying in acute hospitals when they did not need to be there. I presume the same thing is happening and people are being placed in nursing homes because the early discharge programme is not there to assist them to go home and receive supports in their homes or communities. It was estimated that over 3,000 people could have received hospital care in the eight hospitals from which data was collected in 2019. That is adding to hospital waiting lists.

Disabled people and their carers frequently tell me they are allocated home support hours without any consultation about what is needed or what suits best. As the Ombudsman's report states, plans need to be drawn up which are person-centred, individualised and integrated. That is extremely important.

We are also being told by Family Carers Ireland and others that we are going to become more dependent on care workers because more people are seeking care. It is now that proper community and home-based supports need to be put in place urgently. It is imperative that the investment is made to accommodate that not just because it is aligned to the UNCRPD but because it is the right thing to do. We must give people the choice to live independently in their own communities.

Mr. Tyndall mentioned he is going to retire shortly. I take this opportunity to wish him a long and happy retirement.