Mr. Liam Hanrahan:

On consultation, it is important to state that as with all parts of the community, whether through the LCDC or SICAP, there is a lot of community consultation and significant engagement with all sectors, including the disability sector, in developing those plans. The disability steering groups and the subgroups that sit under that not only have the HSE and the HSE housing co-ordinator on them but also the disability groups and, in some cases, people with disabilities themselves.

As Ms Farrelly said, as you move into post tenancy and people become our tenants or tenants of the AHB, they get involved in post tenancy residents groups and other community initiatives within their area. The housing disability steering group has been useful from that point of view because as people are being assessed going onto the housing list and being provided with allocations, the parts of the community, whether it is going onto schemes, getting involved in GRETB courses or other types of things or supports, they can be put in place from day one. In Galway, we have supported 52 people through that process. In all cases, there is not only a HSE element around some of the home help care required but there is also community care elements put into the work programme for that person too. It is up to our staff and the HSE staff to support that whole integration with that person into their local community.

With applications and how people make them, we have got much better whether it is with online versions, simple English versions, or, in some cases, working with an advocate for someone who needs that help. That means having a named advocate on file as a contact person for the person with the disability who needs the extra help. That is how we support people in that case. It is about the identification of people, whether they are coming out of congregated settings or people who have lived all their lives at home with elderly people, which is a target group that we have to reach out to more and more these days.