Dr. Rosalyn Tamming:

I think representatives from the ESRI were in here recently. We commissioned that study in the same way as the study we released with the ESRI yesterday. We have a research partnership with the ESRI that is part of a large research programme. We recognised that personal assistance was quite an under-researched area in Ireland. As the committee knows, the findings showed that the system itself is very fragmented and there are differences between the various community healthcare organisations, CHOs. The legislative underpinning is a little bit difficult and I will let Mr. Hunt talk a bit more about this. Part 2 of the Disability Act 2005 says people have access to an assessment of need, but it does not have the service bit in there. If the requirement for access to a service is put clearly into legislation, we could end up in the same position where it is dependent on available resources. It does not necessarily move things on. I am not 100% sure legislation is necessary. Perhaps a policy commitment would do the same job but other people might have differing views on that.

On access to independent living, the HSE has a working group on nursing homes that Mr. Hunt is a part of so I will let him talk about that.