Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 February 2026
119. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the current number of adults with an intellectual disability awaiting residential placement, per health region, and for a categorisation of wait times in years and months. [12930/26]
View answerThis Government is committed to delivering and expanding residential services for people with disabilities as set out in the Programme for Government.
As of December 2025, approximately 90 service providers are providing 8,911 residential places to people with disabilities.
This Government and the HSE acknowledge the very high demand for residential placements due to a number of factors including demographic challenges associated with the increase in the number of people living with a disability as well as changing needs and the increase in age profile of those in existing placements. Further challenges include the availability of appropriate housing and recruitment challenges impacting all areas of disability services.
The Department of Children, Disability and Equality is continuing to work closely alongside the HSE to increase provision of these vital services. From 2020 to 2025, 955 new priority one residential places have been created for people with disabilities.
Budget 2026 has provided €3.8billion to Specialist Disability Services. Approximately 60% of this total funding will be provided to support specialist disability residential services. This year, €65million has been provided to the HSE for new developments in respect of residential services. €40million of this funding will provide for an additional 199 new residential responses, which includes 152 new residential places. It will also support new residents in existing placements that have become vacant and require enhancement and in limited circumstances, placements in nursing home settings.
The HSE’s 2026 National Service Plan includes details of a new initiative which will see 72 of these new planned places in 2026, in addition to funding an additional 80 unplanned urgent places to address emerging need.
HSE Disability Services operates a system called the Disability Support Application Management Tool (DSMAT) which provides a list and detailed profiles of people who need additional funded supports in each HSE area.
The HSE advises that HSE Integrated Healthcare areas and Regional Healthcare areas manage the need and requirements in their respective areas, working in conjunction with local Service Providers with a view to responding to the level of presenting needs within the resources available.
In 2019, there were 776 applications for a new residential service. This increased each year up to 1,558 at the end of 2024. The most recent available data from Q2 2025 shows a decrease in applications to 1,389. Approximately 20% of these applications have been designated at Priority one (highest need), with the remainder of applications designated as Priority two or Priority three need.
The HSE also highlights that a number of applications relate to an existing resident who requires additional funded supports on a recurring basis, to meet significant changing needs such as ageing, mental health or behavioural presentation.
The DSMAT captures detailed information on home and family circumstances and a detailed presentation profile of each individual. This enables the Regional Healthcare Areas to record and manage requests for support for those with complex needs and to ensure that the application process is equitable and transparent.
It is important to note, however, that the DSMAT is not a chronological waiting list. Rather, it is a support to the local HSE area to feed into its decision-making process around prioritisation of services. This means that services are allocated on the basis of greatest presenting need and associated risk factors.
