Elderly carers face deep uncertainty over council housing assessment system

Elderly parents caring for adult children with intellectual disabilities are facing deep uncertainty about the future after Dublin City Council admitted its housing system fails to accurately track their specific care needs

Add to preferred sources News Stephen Holland Local Democracy Reporter 12:57, 16 Sep 2026 Updated 13:03, 16 Sep 2026 View Image A carer holder the hand of a patient (Image: Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs via Getty Images)

Dublin City Council’s housing assessment system is failing to capture the specific needs of adults with intellectual disabilities.

A motion tabled at Monday’s Housing and Social Inclusion SPC revealed that housing forms fail to distinguish between applicants who can live independently and those requiring dedicated support services. Mary Hayes, Director of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE), acknowledged a "weakness" in their assessment process, confirming they will now have to manually contact every applicant who logged an intellectual disability to clarify their specific housing and care needs.

While the council does record intellectual disabilities, Ms Hayes said engagement with the Before We Die campaign group, who represent elderly carers, highlighted the need for more detailed assessments. “The guidance is that our current assessment isn't strong enough, so we're going to have to go back and clarify with individual applications. It's going to be quite individually heavy,” Ms Hayes explained.

This information came following Deputy Lord Mayor and Labour Councillor Alison Field’s proposal for the Before We Die group to join their Housing SPC to help them put a plan in place for ageing parents to have less fear around what happens to their children if something happens to them. As a mother of a severely Autistic, non-verbal 13-year-old son, Cllr Field has consistently campaigned for those with additional needs.

“These people have experience caring for their children with disabilities for 40 and 50 years. I have to hand it to them. I have been doing it for 13 years and I am exhausted,” the Clontarf representative said.

The campaign has highlighted parents in their 90s who fear their children will end up in homeless accommodation or moved to another part of the country away from their family and support system after they die. “It’s frightening to think of what can happen to your child. I am living it myself,” Cllr Field said.

While all SPC members supported the work of Before We Die, it was decided that full membership to their committee might frustrate the group as most general agenda items would be irrelevant to their specific focus. People Before Profit Cllr Conor Reddy suggested the formation of a working group chaired by Cllr Field aimed at implementing their goals.

Instead of full SPC membership, Ms Hayes recommended inviting the campaign to join the council’s Disability Steering Committee as the most practical route to making an impact. She said this is where decisions are being made on issues related to both housing assessments and their overall Development Plan. In the meantime, it was agreed that the Before We Die group would be invited to make a presentation to the Housing SPC.

The group highlights the large number of elderly carers across Ireland, as 1,500 adults with intellectual disabilities in Ireland live with family carers over the age of 70. Of these, 450 adults are cared for by parents aged over 80. Before We Die outline their aims as raising awareness of the scale of this issue to and highlighting the profiles of families living with this reality.

“We are pressing the Government to meet the targets set out in its 2021 Disability Capacity Review, so that adults with intellectual disabilities can live with dignity, security, and independence,” a statement from Before We Die said.

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

Want to see more of the stories you love from Dublin Live? Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives top stories and must-read content straight away. To add us as a preferred source, simply click here .