Ms Lorraine Dempsey:

Deputy Billy Kelleher asked about paediatric home care. We are talking specifically about trained nurses in the cases of children who have very complex medical needs. There are two issues. One is that the HSE would provide an actual financial budget for paediatric home care for a specific child's package. The other issue, which is slightly more difficult, is providing the staff to provide that home care. I am a former nurse. Among the nursing profession there is not an awareness that one does not have to be a paediatric nurse to provide tracheostomy care for a child at home. Training is available and those training will be organised through the various agencies with which the HSE is dealing in terms of providing a package of home care. For nurses who are generally trained there is that option to get involved in their local area with children awaiting staffing of the packages of home care. They just have to contact the relevant agencies to which the HSE is outsourcing the care and the training will be provided for these children's complex needs, albeit the nurses' primary education would have been in general nursing. It is important our nursing community is aware of that. One of the big problems is that while funding may be available after a long time fighting for funding for paediatric home care, the difficulty is staffing those packages. We are talking about some children who require 24 hour medical and nursing care in the home.

The Jack and Jill Children's Foundation would have presented to the committee the figures for primary versus tertiary care and the significant savings for the State and the HSE's budget would have been apparent.

I met Deputy Ó Caoláin at the Rett syndrome conference a number of years ago when he spent several hours talking to parents. It is good to see that public representatives get first hand knowledge of what it is like for families to deal with these syndromes. I wholly empathise with Mr. Declan McPhillips who has a child with disabilities, whom I brought to assist me at the information stand at Rett syndrome conference.