John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

You said there that as Taoiseach you must act on the health portfolio. You were answering that in respect of the specific wage increase for the Secretary General. In your opening remarks and in the Estimates, you referred to Cabinet sub-committees which I was interested in. They are dealing with the disability sector and improving the lot of people with disabilities, and equality and justice, etc. I was not going to mention this but, in contrast, I put it to you that Ellie, who is three years of age, was accessing services through an agency funded by the HSE and she was doing very well. She has a particular diagnosis which is rare, genetic and so on, but she was doing well. Then the HSE reconfigured its delivery of services and it went from that agency back into the HSE and Ellie lost 75% of the services that were improving her lot in life. Her mother was told that she should reassess her expectations of what Ellie can achieve. She said: "If we get her to a place where she can creep and perhaps shuffle around on her bum, then I should celebrate this and be happy with that." That is from a letter that parent sent to your office, to mine and to others. I looked at it and I found what the mother was saying was absolutely true. I raised it last night with two Ministers in the Department of Health at a meeting. I cannot fathom why services that were working - that is not the only one and I have lots of correspondence here to do with the disability sector - when they are changed would result in that young person losing out to that extent. I am saying this to you in the context of the Cabinet sub-committee on disability.

There is another case where the young chap has been 28 months lying on a couch. I do not expect you to know anything about this. I am just giving you the general thrust of what is happening out there. The allocation from the HSE is €54,000 for the services that he requires. He is a child with autism who has not been in school and has not received any supports whatsoever for his condition, and there is no intervention. When I inquire as to why it has stopped and why the parents are put under such pressure, I do not get an answer. That is the difficulty. I am presenting this to you to explain things from my end.

Likewise, a family in Glanmire, County Cork do not have services for their child. I cannot understand given the amount that is being spent, that services are in such a state of almost collapse. It concerns me. This young man, Joey, is receiving services from Praxis, a company, I understand, being paid for by the Department. The services were closed in Douglas and they were moved to Monahan Road in Cork. Praxis has refused to pay for the transport of that young person to the services. As some of these services are transferred from the private sector to the HSE, people who require them are just not getting them. It is difficult to explain to those parents why that is happening.

When I listened to both Ministers last evening, I was struck by the level of bureaucracy that prevents them from delivering the funding effectively to the end user. I am wondering, in terms of the sub-committee, whether that the type of issue that is discussed. I do not expect you to deal with individual cases but you are aware of all of this. When can people expect that there will be a response?