A new Health Research Board report shows that 34,652 adults engaged with disability services in 2024* – this represents a 9% increase in coverage of data from the 2023 figure of 31,698.

Nearly 1 in 5 (6,219) adults engaged with disability services are aged 18 to 24 years and more than 1 in 3 (12,115) adults are in the 40-59 years age group.

More than half of adults (19,261) engaging with disability services have an intellectual disability. Nearly one in five of whom were aged 60 years and over; with 200 aged 80 and over. The data shows that service users with an intellectual disability are living longer, this highlights a need for age-appropriate services.

One in 10 adults receiving disability services are Autistic, this is the highest ever reported and will have an impact on the types of services needed in the future.

More than 16,000 adults reported having a primary carer, of whom 9 in 10 live with them. Almost 4 in 10 primary carers were aged 60 years and older, almost one third were 70-79 years old and one tenth of whom were aged 80 years and over.

Commenting on the findings from the report, Sarah Fanagan, Research Officer at the HRB and lead author of the report said,

“A clear message from the report continues to be the growing need for residential care. Over 2,000 adults were identified by service providers as requiring a residential place. The majority of people who require a residential place have an intellectual disability, are getting older, and have ageing carers looking after them.”

HRB Chief Executive Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll said:

‘The HRB gathers this data to better understand the needs of people living with a disability and provide evidence to inform policy and service planning.”

Current service provision**

A total of 8,036 people across Ireland live in residential care, the majority (98%) are adults. In 2024, 5,310 people accessed 133,351 nights of respite.

Home support was received by 5,805 people, while just over 2,000 people had a personal assistant (PA). Over half (18,302) of adults received at least one specialist support which includes services like occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy.

Day services were accessed by 20,796 adults, 90% of these were day programmes.

New services required 2024-2029

Over 2,000 people require a residential service, while a further 1,316 people require overnight respite.

An additional 537 people require home support and over 200 people require a PA. At least one specialist support is required by 3,422 adults.

According to data provided by the HSE National Day Service Database (NDSD), a further 3,209 people will require day services.

* This report does not capture data on waiting lists.

**The report focuses on data about adults receiving any HSE funded disability services and children receiving residential, respite, home support and/or specialised support services from dedicated organisations. It does not include data on children in receipt of multidisciplinary supports through HSE Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs). The HSE has committed to providing the NASS with data from the new CDNT IT system on completion of the ongoing rollout nationally. This will provide a more complete picture of children accessing all HSE funded disability services, including CDNTs.

Ends

NOTE TO EDITORS

The Health Research Board (HRB) is Ireland’s lead funding agency supporting innovative health research and delivering data and evidence that improves people’s health and patient care. We are committed to putting people first, and ensuring data and evidence are used in policy and practice to overcome health challenges, advance health systems, and benefit society and economy.

The National Ability Supports System (NASS) is a national database which records information about the HSE funded disability services that people use and need such as, residential services, respite care, day services and specialist supports, for example occupational therapy or physiotherapy. The purpose of NASS is to gather information from service providers to aid the planning, development, and organisation of HSE funded disability services. A person is eligible to be registered on NASS if they receive or require (either currently or within the next 5 years) a HSE funded disability service as identified by their service provider.

Data is provided to NASS by service providers who provide disability services to people in Ireland. Service providers are asked to ‘review’ NASS records for each of their service users once a year to ensure information is accurate for each reporting year.

Increased coverage of the data provided to NASS is as a result of ongoing engagement with the HSE and service providers.