Ministers Foley and Higgins welcome progress on disability residential services

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Minister for Children, Disability and Equality Norma Foley and Minister of State with responsibility for Disability, Emer Higgins, today welcomed the progress underway to provide residential services to people with disabilities.

Since 2020, additional funding provided to the HSE has supported the creation of over 1,000 additional specialist disability residential places for people with disabilities. These placements largely support people moving from their family home to a residential service and are in addition to transitions from congregated settings.

This has brought the number of residential places for people with disabilities to almost 9,000. The HSE’s National Service Plan 2026 is deploying €65 million of additional funding in Budget 2026 to develop around 152 newly created residential placements. This consists of 72 planned placements and 80 priority one placements to meet urgent need.

Following engagement with Minister for Housing James Browne TD and local authorities, every council in the country will set targets for the first time for delivering social housing for two key groups of disabled people. The housing targets will be contained in the forthcoming Local Authority Housing Delivery Action Plans 2027-2030.

Ministers Foley and Higgins met with HSE CEO Anne O’Connor and members of her senior management team this week as part of their ongoing engagement to discuss a number of issues, including the provision of residential places.

Minister Foley reiterated the Government’s commitment to enhancing services for people with a disability in Ireland to maximise each individual’s independence and support people to live ordinary lives in ordinary places.

Minister Foley said:

“There are currently almost 9,000 residential places for people with disabilities and I welcome the progress that has been made in providing more residential places this year. However, we need to provide more housing for people with disabilities in every corner of Ireland. I know that people with complex disabilities and their parents and families need greater assurances that supports and residential placements will be there when they need them, close to home and close to community. This is a key commitment under the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People.

I am working very closely with Minister for Housing James Browne and his Department to provide a pipeline of homes for the people with disabilities who need them most. Councils will supply the homes and the Department of Children, Disability and Equality, via the HSE, will supply the funding for the staff and services that people with disabilities need to live in these new homes.”

Minister Higgins said:

“Too many people with disabilities and their families face uncertainty about accessing residential support, and unfortunately families often reach crisis point before residential services are available for them.

Families are rightly frustrated by Government’s lack of planning and I acknowledge that we need to do better at planning ahead, identifying needs earlier and giving families greater certainty about the future. That is something Minister Foley and I are working to achieve.

This year, €2.2 billion is supporting residential services as part of our record €3.9 billion disability services budget. We are working with the HSE and service providers to deliver planned residential places as well as transitional support plans and enhanced care packages for families who need extra help at home.

I will continue to work closely with Minister Foley and Minister for Housing James Browne to deliver more appropriate housing for people with disabilities and strengthen the coordination between housing and disability services. There is a lot of work to do and our focus must be on making sure people can access the right support, in the right place when they need it.”

Funding has also been provided for other residential responses including to enable the uptake of vacant residential places by new individuals and also additional funding to support people already in an existing placement, whose needs have become more complex.

A new procurement framework for for-profit providers in disability residential services is also under development and nearing finalisation.

A particular focus is on strengthening implementation structures established under the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People to enhance coordination between Local Authorities and disability service providers at local, regional and national level.

This will inform the setting of targets in the upcoming local authority Housing Development Action Plans (HDAPs) for two groups of disabled people. The first group is disabled people who are able to live more independently in the community with some supports and the second group is disabled people who need more intensive, specialist supports.

The Department of Children, Disability and Equality is undertaking research to progress a new policy framework for specialist disability residential services. Engagement and input from stakeholders, particularly those with lived experience, will be an important part of this policy development process.

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