Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I say very strongly that, as far as I am concerned in my job as Minister of State with responsibility for the disabled, individuals will never be left behind. My focus is always on the person with the disability. I have heard people's opinions on the row about decongregated settings. I have heard staff and people with a different view to my own. However, I hope the Deputy is not going to tell me that keeping people in institutions in 2016 is the way forward. My objective is to put every single person with a mental and intellectual disability who wants to go, with their permission and with their families' agreement, into smaller community housing with supports in place. The budget of €100 million over the next five years is for that.

I would be very interested to hear about that particular case the Deputy has spoken about. Every single case that I have dealt with over the last six months in which a person has moved from an institution to a community house has had the services in place first. In fact, I was down in Áras Attracta last week. There were young men with intellectual disabilities coming into the office of Ms Suzanne Keenan, the director of services, to ask when they were moving into their new house. The smile and glee on their faces is often not represented, by the way, in this debate. Supports will be in place and if there are any issues or bad practices I will definitely track them down and sort them out.

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