Ms Laverne McGuinness:

With regard to children's outreach nursing services for palliative care, it is a new performance indicator that will be routinely collected, validated and reported on a monthly basis for 2014 as part of a performance report. We have not carried out such work previously.

I confirm to Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick that 1.3 million personal assistant hours were provided in 2013 and the same number will be provided in 2014. The number of home support hours provided for people with disabilities in 2013 was 2.4 million and the same number will be provided in 2014. That is in addition to the €14 million investment this year for disability services, €10 million for emergency placements, residential care and school leavers and €4 million for assessment of children under 18 years of age and autism services. Fifty-six thousand hours will be provided for home help in 2014, the same volume as in 2013. In addition, the €10.3 million budget allocation for 2013 will remain at the same level for 2014. Therefore, there has been no diminution in the level of service to be provided.