Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 November 2020
358. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his plans for replacing the National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability 2011-2016 which was extended as part of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness which is due to end in 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38534/20]
View answer359. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the reason the National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability Implementation Monitoring Group has not furnished a progress report since December 2018; the further length of time before the next progress report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38535/20]
View answer363. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the detail of the strategy for housing for persons with disabilities. [38560/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 358, 359 and 363 together.
The National Housing Strategy for people with a Disability (NHSPWD) 2011-2016 and associated National Implementation Framework were jointly published by the Department of Housing and the Department of Health in 2011 and 2012 respectively. They set out the Government’s broad framework for the delivery of housing for people with disabilities and were developed as part of a coherent framework in conjunction with the Government’s mental health policy, A Vision for Change (2008), and the report of the working group on congregated settings, Time to Move on from Congregated Settings (2011). In 2016, under Rebuilding Ireland the Strategy was extended to allow it to continue to achieve its aims.
The vision of the nine Strategic Aims of the Strategy is to facilitate access, for people with disabilities, to the appropriate range of housing and related support services, delivered in an integrated and sustainable manner, which promotes equality of opportunity, individual choice and independent living. Along with promoting access by people with disabilities to independent living across the full range of housing options, they provide for frameworks and protocols for effective interagency cooperation; good practice in design, coordination and delivery of housing and related supports; improved collection and use of data for evidence based implementation; research and development of universal design standards; access to appropriate advice and information in respect of housing need; and a framework to support the delivery, monitoring and review of agreed actions.
The Implementation Framework for the Strategy, developed by a high-level implementation planning group, is comprised of 18 priority actions, supported by a number of key measures with responsibility for these assigned to key stakeholders.
Progress under the Strategy is reported in the annual report of the Implementation Monitoring Group for the Strategy. Five reports of the Implementation Monitoring Group for the Housing of People with a Disability have been published to date. The report for 2017 was published in December 2018 and the Fifth Report for 2018 was published in March 2020. All five reports are available at the following link:
www.housing.gov.ie/housing/policy/people-disability/housing-people-disability.
The sixth report for 2019 will be published shortly.
The National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability will be reviewed by my Department and the Department of Health in 2021 in consultation with all stakeholders. An Advisory Group is being set up and it is hoped to have the Group's first meeting shortly thereafter.
