Budget 2027: Investing in the Right to an Ordinary Life

Where we live matters. But a home is about much more than an address.

For people with intellectual disabilities, real community living means having the same choices as everyone else: choosing where and with whom you live, deciding how you spend your time, staying close to the people who matter to you and having the support you need to be part of your community.

Too many people still do not have that certainty.

Some people have no clear plan for where they will live in the future. Others are living far from family, friends and the communities they know. And too often, conversations about housing focus on finding a residential place rather than asking a much more important question: what kind of life does this person want to live?

That is why Inclusion Ireland has developed The Right to an Ordinary Life – Choice, Belonging and Community Living

The resource sets out a simple vision for community living based on Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: people with disabilities have the right to choose where and with whom they live and to have the support they need to live and participate in their communities.

At the heart of it is our Three Choice Test:

Do I have a choice about where I live?
Do I have a choice about who I live with?
Do I have a choice about how I spend my time?

Community living does not mean that everyone must live alone. Nor is putting a group of people with intellectual disabilities together in a building automatically inclusion.

It is about the person having real choice and control.

It means being able to stay connected to family and friends. Using the same shops, cafés, transport and services. Knowing your neighbours. Having relationships with people who are not paid to be in your life. Being known and valued in your community.

And it means having skilled support that helps you build that life.

An ordinary life should not be an extraordinary ambition.

To make this possible, Ireland needs to plan earlier and differently. Every person with an intellectual disability should have an individual housing plan from young adulthood, developed with them and the people they choose to involve.

We also need long-term funding, better regional data, joined-up planning between health and housing and a workforce equipped not only to provide care, but to support people to build relationships, make connections and belong.

Because the goal cannot simply be to provide more places.

The goal must be to support more people to have homes, relationships, choices and lives of their own.

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