Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I will have a conversation outside of the House about what the Deputy is saying, but she is correct. The structure and the design of the houses I have come across perhaps do not address the needs, the challenging behaviour needs or the emergency cases that I would normally have come across. I saw a really good house design recently in Swords. The Talbot Group is changed with the delivery of the care there. I describe it as the house with two front doors. One front door caters for four or five children who have mild to moderate needs and the other front door caters for children with more challenging behaviours. At all stages, one part of the house will always function because we always cater to those with mild to moderate needs. Then if there is a child who needs access, whether it is an emergency case or more challenging behaviour, he or she can access the house the other way. It meets the HIQA, requirements. It can be HIQA-approved. We need to look at our designs and what we are purchasing or renovating. What the Deputy has described in relation to the decongregated setting would be a large space. Clearly, it was HIQA-approved in the past. In fact, the changes and the alternations, and perhaps the capacity to be able to cater to the two front doors, could possibly be easily remedied to ensure that we could have quicker delivery without having to go out looking to see where we could find a house. In this challenging market, if there was one there already that we have decongregated, I would be asking the CHO whether we can review that and look at it to see what costings would be involved to ensure we could create that capacity. I am aware, from the nine houses that I delivered in the 2021 budget that I put in an extra 10,000 bed-nights for children and adults, which is significant. By the time I put in place another 12 houses this year, the Deputy will be able to see the potential capacity I will have created to support families, to support the children and also the complex cases that sometimes get forgotten about.

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