Mr. Brian Smyth:

People get a great deal of support. I do not want to go into the issue of value for money or the outcomes for people in institutional care settings that have been in this country for a long time. We have to innovate with people to give them choices in the supports that are valuable to them. Regarding the difference between the value of what is done with and alongside people versus the cost of that, Mr. McManus could not access a disability service provider at the time he was referred to Social Farming Ireland. He interacted with two farms. He has said that that support helped him – we know that – to move into independence. He learned to cook on one of those farms. The farms are focused on producing food and the participants on the farm in question learned to cook their own food.

The farmer is not getting paid for having labour on the farm. Rather, this is a support placement, which is very different. These supports are provided in a natural environment on an ordinary-----