Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of our guests who are here. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, in particular for all the updates she has given us thus far.

I would like to ask the Minister of State for information on respite, in particular, when it comes to decongregation of residential respite. I work closely with Stewarts Care in Palmerstown which offers incredible residential and holistic care to people with disabilities who need support to be fully independent.

Many of my constituents have children with special needs, some of whom may be adult children who would benefit considerably from respite care. When you look at the assessments of need that are being carried out in my area of CHO 7, the demand for assessment is considerable. Approximately 50% of those assessments are coming from requests for children who may have autism. Looking forwards, that is a significant allocation of resources when it comes to future-proofing for their needs. In particular, I am thinking of those children going through the system of assessment who in the coming years would benefit, as would their families, from residential respite care.

This is something that has been committed to from a decongregation perspective under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, and in the programme for Government. It is also important given the ageing population we have and how many adult children with special needs rely heavily on ageing parents. That is the backdrop to my question. Perhaps the Minister of State would give me some detail on what progress is being made by her and her time at the HSE on this.