Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Good morning everyone. I want to confirm that I am in Leinster House 2000. I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for being here today. I also thank him for the work that he and his team are continuously doing.

I will start by referring to Bushypark, a residential addiction support centre in Ennis. I know that the Minister of State has been in contact with the centre and has visited it in the past. It is incredible what the centre has done throughout Covid. Over the past two years as a Deputy I have met many people who have come out the other end, the success stories from Bushypark. The centre has been in operation for many years. Thanks to Bushypark many people are back on the straight and narrow, off alcohol and avoiding their gambling addictions. They are on a good pathway in life once more. I want to pay tribute to Ms Margaret Nash, Mr. Gerry Murphy and all of the team at the centre. A new building will open shortly at Bushypark which is very exciting. That has been supported and funded by the Government but there is a funding crisis across our residential addiction centres, including Bushypark. I ask the Minister of State to consider revising the block grant funding model under which funds are disbursed via the HSE. At the moment, funding is based on bed nights. In a year when bed nights fluctuate, and particularly during Covid when bed nights in non-acute services such as residential addiction services were reduced, a lot of these centres found their funding plummeting. At the same time, they still have the same staffing levels and overheads. This is not just a Covid-related problem. Year on year, centres like Bushypark have budgets that are just not stable which makes it very difficult for them to plan.

Another issue related to funding is the real need for multi-annual funding. At the moment there is an annual funding allocation made by the Department of Health. It is very difficult for Ms Margaret Nash and her team to plan for what happens next year and the following years. They may be getting new bricks and mortar but in terms of expanding their programmes, or enhancing what they already deliver, it is very difficult. I ask the Minister of State to respond to the question of revising the block grant model and introducing multi-annual funding to replace the current annual funding model.