Parliamentary Questions for the Before We Die Campaign

This morning, I spoke in the Dáil in support of the Before We Die campaign - a group of parents who I have spent some time with over the past few months and they asking one simple question: what happens to my son or daughter when I am no longer here to care for them?

Tony Murray, Maria Moran and many other families in my own constituency, who along with the wider campaign in Cork and elsewhere have met with me, with the Minister for Children, the Minister for Disability, and with the Taoiseach, to make this case directly.

Below are a compilation of targeted Parliamentary Questions which I have submitted on this issue form both the campaign and from individual families. The answers confirm what these families have been telling us. Nearly half of primary carers of adults awaiting a residential place are aged 60 or over.

The State's own 2021 Disability Capacity Review found we need at least 1,900 additional residential places by 2032. This is not a hidden problem, it is a documented one, and it is coming whether we plan for it or not. It's also clear that while day services are important there is very little transparency as to how requests for residential care are processed between the different day services, the HSE Disability Services within the Integrated Health Area Dublin North City & West (IHA DNCW). Often applications are only lodged when it is an emergency.

This morning, I called for two immediate measures. First, for a dedicated housing officer to be established in every local authority, seconded from and like the HSE, to bring housing and health together around each individual case rather than leaving families to navigate two systems alone. Second, a guaranteed forward plan triggered automatically when the carer of a person with an intellectual disability turns 65, so that families get certainty and a progressive pathway, not a crisis response. Often people don't have an immediate need for a place, but they have an immediate need for a plan they can transition into.