Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to talk to the Minister of State about the Before We Die campaign, a grassroots, family-led campaign across the country. It deals with an issue that we in this country have neglected for too long, that being, not finding appropriate residential places for people with intellectual disabilities. Unfortunately, it took a number of parents in Cork to raise this matter, albeit the main instigator, Tony Murray, was based in Dublin. He started this campaign a number of years ago. I pay tribute to Sinéad, Janet, Linda and Esther, who are central to the Cork campaign.

I do not understand how we have got into this position. Frequently, the House is told that we have massive budget increases for various aspects of disability services. That is true on paper, with over €3 billion now being spent on disability services annually and €2.2 billion of that for residential services, but if you talk to the 350 or so people who were in the Silver Springs hotel this day last week with myself and Deputy Séamus McGrath, you will hear of very little residential support and virtually no respite support. Cork has always been a bit of a black spot in terms of lacking disability services. That was no more evident than when residential support was discussed that night. Three hundred and fifty people packed that room. Some of the people had intellectual disabilities themselves, but many were parents, particularly mothers.

The Before We Die campaign has done its own research. There are 1,500 adults in this country with intellectual disabilities who are living with carers who are aged 70 or older. Of those, 500 or so are living with carers aged 80 or over. I am sure that the Minister of State and Deputy Ó Fearghaíl hear of people in their constituencies needing emergency care and intervention. A case came to me not so long ago where someone living in Cork was offered emergency residential care in Meath. That is what we are doing to these people, sending them hundreds of kilometres away from their families. Many of these parents do not want to make the decision to let their adult children leave them, but because of their ages, they just cannot cope any more. Unfortunately, the State offers the solution - the section 38 organisations in Cork offer it – of going hundreds of kilometres away from home. This is normally done to address an emergency or crisis situation.

We have done no forward planning in the last five or six years. The most recent figures made available to us show that 43 residential places were provided nationally in 2023. The waiting list speaks for itself. There are thousands of people in this situation and we are doing nothing to address it.

Since I became involved with the Before We Die campaign in Cork, we have been able to arrange a number of meetings with Cork City Council and Cork County Council and we are doing things locally that are going to help improve people’s lives. The councils have each agreed to appoint a liaison officer to deal with families in these situations. Hopefully, the councils are now going to streamline the application process for social housing for these families.

We cannot forget that the section 38 and section 39 service providers have an obligation. Many have the capacity of housing bodies and can themselves deliver housing. We cannot let them shirk their responsibility.

What is the Department’s view on the Before We Die campaign? What interaction is it having with the campaign? What does it intend to do to solve this residential crisis?

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