Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the budget that was outlined, €100 million has been left aside. One of my priorities related to respite, for both adult service users and children. Many members will be aware that during Covid, some of our respite centres were used as isolation hubs. One of the first tasks I took on with the HSE involved ensuring that those isolation hubs would be stood down and could return to use for respite services, given that overnight respite had been lost. That was because, at that time, isolation hubs had to be at a standard defined by HIQA in order that people could stay in them. If someone was self-isolating there for 14 days, the accommodation had to be of HIQA standard. In many of the community healthcare organisations, CHOs, where there are multiple providers, the HSE is itself allocating isolation hubs such as the one in the Chairman's home county. The HSE is working with the two CHOs in question and the hubs will provide isolation facilities. That will address the need for respite and put some support and structure in place for families.

Going forward, of the €100 million allocated in the budget, respite will be a significant aspect in three phases. We want to build capacity into it, by building new units and getting more units up and running that need staffing funding to be delivered, and to increase the number of planned places and emergency places. The crisis has put a great deal of pressure on what would normally have been planned because of emergencies or family circumstances and so on. Respite is part and parcel of the funding. It will be delivered under a service level agreement with HSE and the nine CHOs, which we are planning to deliver in the first week of December.

As for staffing, one good aspect throughout this crisis relates to the pool and panel that the providers have. They are in a position to increase some of their contract hours to ensure there are more staff who can work. I have spoken to a number of the providers in various parts of the country, and while they may have had some staff on shorter hours, they are now in a position to have them work longer ones.