HSE pledges €8m to help move young adults with disabilities out of nursing homes

Ombudsman Ger Deering had called for increased transition and other support funding for the 1,242 people with disabilities living in nursing homes — mostly due to lack of suitable alternatives — in May 2024. File picture: iStock

Extra funding has been secured to help more adults with disabilities aged between 20 and 65 leave nursing homes, according to the Ombudsman.

Ger Deering, who has previously highlighted the HSE practice, said he has been informed €8m will be used to move residents — including those with acquired brain injuries, spinal injuries, or multiple sclerosis and stroke survivors — into more suitable accommodation.

The money is up from the €5.5m made available in 2023.

The €8m is part of an over €10m allocation. The other €2m will go towards the HSE’s Enhanced Quality of Life Supports (EQLS) scheme which provides personal assistance, equipment, and therapeutic support to people transitioning out of nursing homes into more appropriate accommodation.

Funding for transitions was cut in 2024, while EQLS funding was stopped, but after Mr Deering highlighted the need for more transitions and support services, the Department of Children has restored it.

“The HSE recently informed me €10m has been allocated and for the first time the allocation ring fences funding for the EQLS,” he told the Irish Examiner.

“This will actually facilitate 45 transitions for 2026. To be fair to the HSE, there's a big piece of work in this.

“It's not just about finding a suitable property for somebody — it's also actually about the wraparound services of home care and assistance they will need."

In December 2024, Mr Deering had warned Ireland would one day look back at the way the State treated people under 65 with disabilities placed in nursing homes and know it was wrong.

He had called for increased transition and other support funding for the 1,242 people with disabilities living in nursing homes — mostly due to lack of suitable alternatives — in May 2024.

At the time, he said increased funding was needed to continue work arising from Wasted Lives: Time for a better future for younger people in Nursing Homes in May 2021.

Compiled by his predecessor Peter Tyndall, it had highlighted the fact there were 1,320 people under 65 years of age living in nursing homes under the HSE’s Nursing Homes Support Scheme (NHSS), as of June 2020.

One of the report’s many criticisms was that the practice of placing people with disabilities in nursing homes was contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Since his report, the number of people under 65 in nursing homes has fallen gradually, to 1,250 residents in May 2023, 1,242 in May 2024, and 1,209 in December 2025.

Most are men, the average stay is 4.5 years, although one person had been in a nursing home for more than 19 years.

About a third get referred there by staff at an acute hospital, while just under two thirds are there because of either a lack of suitable alternative accommodation or home support, or the fact they have no primary carer.

While most were aged between 40 and 65, about 50 were aged under 40, with one aged in their 20s, in May 2023.