Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is not a Deputy in this House who has not met families and individuals who are being decongregated from institutions. That is a broad policy and it is supported. The difficulty is that when a policy becomes a target-setting exercise, very quickly the individuals get left behind. I would be concerned that the focus on targets the whole time and the pressure on the HSE to achieve the target of moving so many people into a community setting means that we will end up not having person-centred plans. They will become statistically-focused plans. That is something I am beginning to detect in this context.

The chairperson of St. Mary of the Angels Parents and Relatives Association told Kerry County Council recently about the conditions one former care resident is living in since moving out under the HSE's Time to Move on from Congregated Settings policy. These are the words of the chairperson of this organisation:

I saw the outside of the house where one of them is living. There is an eight to ten-foot wooden fence around the back garden. The sides and front of the house are guarded by a six-foot mesh fence and there's a big heavy metal gate. That person is living like a prisoner.

It is an indication that we need to put the supports in place in the community and go back to person-centred plans as opposed to statistically-focused plans.

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