Dáil motion highlights lack of integrated planning for intellectual disability residential housing
Friday 10 July 2026
A Private Members' motion in the Dáil has called for urgent reforms in how local authorities, the HSE, and government departments plan and record housing for adults with intellectual disabilities.
A Private Members' motion brought before Dáil Éireann has highlighted critical deficiencies in how housing and residential supports are planned, recorded, and delivered for adults with an intellectual disability in Ireland.
Moving the motion, Deputy Liam Quaide argued that every adult with an intellectual disability has the right to live independently in their own community. The motion details a "bureaucratic maze" involving service providers, the Health Service Executive (HSE), local authorities, and other public bodies, which leaves many families without a single public body taking clear responsibility for planning future living arrangements.
Data and Planning Gaps
The motion raised significant concerns over how housing and residential needs are tracked. According to the presented figures, the true level of unmet residential and supported living need remains unknown. The HSE does not maintain a central chronological waiting list for residential services. Furthermore, many disabled people and their families are unaware that they must register on a local authority social housing list to be officially recorded as having a housing need.
Data cited from the "Before We Die" campaign revealed that out of 1,000 families surveyed, only 19 per cent of adults with an intellectual disability were on a local authority housing list, and only 2 per cent had a formal written housing plan. Additionally, more than 2,000 adults with an intellectual disability are living with parents aged 70 or older.
Out-of-Area Placements
The motion also identified planning issues regarding the location of residential placements. Parliamentary data indicates that at least 606 people with an intellectual disability were living outside their home county, and at least 193 were living over 100 kilometres away from their families.
However, the motion noted that these are minimum figures due to gaps in state data. The HSE does not routinely collate national data on the distance of residents from their home communities, and regional records—such as those in HSE South West—frequently omit cross-county placements within the same administrative region. The motion warns that emergency and out-of-area placements risk becoming permanent by default due to these systemic planning failures.