Dr. Alison Harnett:

I thank Deputy Cairns for her question. As an umbrella group of service providers, the national federation has been looking at this question of independent supported living for quite a number of years. It developed a community practice which was a shared earning space for more than 26 organisations collaborating to look at how to develop individualised supports into the future and where it was possible to do so. There have been many different areas of support and little initiatives such as the Genio grants, and there has been the service reform fund.

These initiatives have allowed us to put in place options for a range of people and to share learning, with the person with the lived experience sharing his or her experience of what it is like to change. People have described what it was like to live in congregated settings and then move to independent living and having their lives transformed. We learn the most from the people who shared their experiences, as well as their families, the people who support them at the front line and all the way to the management. It is a question of how you develop that. We have learned that the outcomes from the Next Steps shared learning are that it is possible to provide independent supported living for people of all ranges of needs, and support requirements. What is required, and it is probably going to be the theme of today, is the multiannual investment programme. If we continue to respond only to the crisis and emergency situations, that is typically going to be very expensive, without the kinds of outcomes we are talking about, where people get to choose the kind of support and life they need. The choice to live alone or to live with other people, in student accommodation as a third level student or to live near one's employment is not possible when responding in a crisis. We have proven that in Ireland it is possible to provide the supports for people to have wonderful outcomes in their lives, to experience independence in a way they have not up to now. That is the case with people with all ranges of ability and needs. We know it can work, and with the correct investment it will work. It is about developing at the different stages and levels that people need. Some people have complex medical requirements that will require nursing support. Other people require a couple of hours support, with somebody to look in and ensure they get a little help with cooking or buying groceries. We should not provide the top level of support unless that is required because it impacts on people's independence. To be able to do that, we need multiannual funding to allow us develop those options at the right time in a person's life, to respond to the person's will and preference.

On the other side of the coin, as adults without disabilities, people have the choice to move out of their family home of origin at a particular time in life when it is right for them and their families have the opportunity to plan for a future. Many family carers are living into their 70s and 80s and have not had the opportunity to plan nor the visibility into the future for their loved one. That is not right for the person who is supported and may wish to live independently and it is not good for the health and well-being of the elderly carers. The acknowledgement in the disability capacity review of those cohorts of people has been very welcome. What we need to do now - apologies for giving the same answer to many of the questions - is to get the multiannual investment programme to allow us to implement those things.