Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The consultation that led to the new National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027 was inclusive and was welcomed positively across the board by disabled people and their representative organisations. It raised hopes and expectations for civil society organisations and their members. More than a year later, however, the housing strategy implementation plan initially expected in June 2022 has still not been released, in spite of the urgency and despair faced by many disabled people waiting for housing. This forms part of the wider lack of implementation regarding the housing crisis. The disability capacity review published in 2021 called for consequent investments to be made to address the housing support needs of disabled people. However, the promised action plan has also not been published yet.

There is a worrying theme of a lack of timely implementation and funding of disability policies. Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD, which commits signatories to "recognize the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others," and to ensure that, basically, disabled people have the right to choose where to live and with whom to live on an equal basis with everybody else, has not been realised because we need to resolve the housing issues affecting people with disabilities before we can realise that right. Adequate funding, effective collaboration and robust management, oversight and reporting must form integral components of implementation. In particular, sufficient funding must be provided to all areas of disability housing policy. We have the decongregation process for moving people out of nursing homes and we must deliver sufficient, fully accessible housing and support provision for those disabled people who are currently living in the community but want to live independently. There are so many who live with aged parents, for example.

As for budget 2023, only a fraction of the overall increase for disability services has been allocated to improve the capacity of residential care, while the disability capacity review stated that addressing both demographic change and unmet need would range in cost from next to €230 million to €550 million a year by 2032. There is a huge level of housing need among the disabled population. More than one in four people who are homeless, 27%, have a disability, and 2,419 people are still living in congregated disability settings, despite the initial deadline to complete decongregation by 2018. More than 1,300 people with disabilities aged under 65 are living in nursing homes, as highlighted by the Ombudsman in his Wasted Lives report in 2021, and 6.6% of households on the social housing waiting list have an accommodation requirement due to disability. Some disabled people report being on the social housing waiting list for ten years or more. The waiting time for people with disabilities has increased in recent years, while it has decreased for those on the general social housing waiting list. More than 1,500 people with intellectual disabilities live with a primary carer over the age of 70, and more than 450 of those family carers are now aged over 80. Those figures are likely to be underestimations of the level of need as we hear from many disabled people with housing needs living with families or in unsuitable, inaccessible homes who are not on the social housing waiting list due to not thinking it will be successful or because they do not know the process to apply.

The delay in the effective planning of the implementation of the new housing strategy, as well as the lack of acknowledgment of the delay itself and the lack of clarity on the timeline, is an insult to the thousands of disabled people across the country struggling to access housing.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Tully for raising this very important issue.

The new joint National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027 was developed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Department of Health and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and was published, as the Deputy said, on 14 January 2022. The strategy places an emphasis on disabled people having choice and control over their living arrangements. It demonstrates the Government's commitment to providing equal access to housing for all.

The strategy is operating within the framework of Housing for All, which is committed to ensuring that affordable, quality housing with an appropriate mix of housing design types provided within social housing, including universally designed units, is available to everyone in Irish society, including people with disabilities. The plan sets out, over four pathways, a broad suite of measures to achieve its policy objectives together with a financial commitment of in excess of €4 billion per annum. The joint strategy sets out the vision for the co-operation and collaboration of Departments, State agencies and others in delivering housing and the related supports for disabled people over the next five years.

Among the objectives of the strategy is to meet our commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to facilitate disabled people to live independently and as part of the community. The strategy aims to ensure that disabled people have equal access to housing and clearer pathways to accessing support services, promoting their inclusion in the community from a housing perspective. Work has been under way since the publication of the new strategy to achieve the objectives set out in it. The Housing Agency, together with all Departments and agencies involved, has also been developing an implementation plan to ensure that a comprehensive suite of actions involving all stakeholders that will ensure the delivery of the high-level objectives is put in place. A national implementation steering group has already been established and is being chaired by the Housing Agency. The group is actively advancing implementation of the strategy and will have responsibility for the delivery of the actions in the implementation plan.

I have only recently got delegated power in this area. I have made this a priority. I have worked with my officials on the document. People know my background. I have a particular commitment to people with disabilities so I want to make this plan up to date and robust. We now have, I believe, a plan that is very much up to date. It is being looked at now in this regard by our co-Departments, namely, the Departments of Health and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. We are looking to publish, in conjunction with the launch, an awareness campaign in the coming weeks. I give that assurance to the Deputy and, more particularly, people with disabilities. I really want this Government to be absolutely committed to people with disabilities. However, it is not just about publishing an implementation plan; it is about publishing an implementation plan that is up to date and robust and delivers for people with disabilities. We are, as I said, finalising that. It is with our two partnership Departments, namely, the Departments of Health and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

We will look to launch the document very shortly along with an awareness campaign as well.

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the fact that it is going to be published in a few weeks, and I sincerely hope that timeline is adhered to because we are a year past the expected date of publication. I hope the plan will see the lack of co-ordination which has existed between housing and other supports being addressed as well. Providing housing is one thing but unless one provides the personal assistance service, for example, or the home care supports, people cannot live independently in the community without them. It is important to ensure that the implementation plan addresses all of those issues and ensures there is co-ordination and co-operation across Departments.

Frequently, I hear of people with disabilities typically being on a social housing waiting list for longer than others and the hold-up is often because even if the council provides the housing, the HSE, other agency, Department or whatever is not prepared to provide the home supports or it is vice versa, one blames the other and then nothing gets delivered. I hope the strategy will address that.

Disability must be mainstreamed in all housing policy, including future-proofing the new housing stock that is currently being built under Housing for All by building houses to universal design plus plus. We are getting older, our population is living longer, and many of us will have mobility issues in the future, so if our house is universally designed to start with, it will be much easier to adapt if needed in the future. Part M of the Building Regulations currently only requires housing to be wheelchair-visitable, not wheelchair-liveable. There is an urgent need to review those guidelines and reform the legislation.

A few of the housing adaption grants were started by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage last year, and we have not yet seen the outcome of this review. There are many issues with that grant as well. The maximum grant needs to increase significantly. The current level is €30,000, but that is far below what is required, especially with the current rise in costs of construction. The income threshold and the means test are problematic and do not reflect the extra cost of disability, which we know from the Indecon report published in 2021, which showed the cost of disability is anywhere from €8,700 to €12,300 per year, depending on the level and severity of the disability. I thank the Minister of State.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Tully for raising this important issue. I will deal with the two items. Regarding Part M, and it providing for "visitable" rather than "liveable", the Deputy might forward to me precisely what she has in mind in that regard.

We have carried out a review on the housing adaptation grants and I am looking at it in partnership with and working with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. Once again, I wish to reassure and to give that firm commitment to both Deputy Tully and to people with disabilities that the implementation plan is an absolute priority for both me and my Department. We are working to have it published in the next couple of weeks along with an awareness campaign. That awareness campaign is being developed by the Housing Agency.

While disabled people continue to access all the various housing options available to them, the ultimate goal is to make our country an even better place for disabled people to live in, to access the right kind of housing or accommodation where disabled people have choices, and are involved with and consulted on matters and decisions which affect their lives. Their independence is hugely important. The new joint national housing strategy for disabled people, as well as the more detailed implementation in line with the emerging implementation plan, will ensure delivery of this goal. This is a matter in which I take a personal interest, as does the Department, and within the next couple of weeks we will publish a robust implementation plan for housing for people with disabilities, together with an awareness campaign. I give that firm commitment here today once again.