Ms Helen Holmes:

Unfortunately, respite is extremely hard to get into in Dublin. Regarding employment, we have a fantastic local initiative called WALK that the committee might have heard of. Senator Seery Kearney would be well aware of it. It gets employment opportunities for adults with intellectual disabilities and runs respite as well, which is fantastic. That is extremely difficult for people under the age of 18. Pre-Covid, parents would have accessed some form of respite and home help and that has gotten back up and running. In one case where there are behaviour issues, a parent who was looking for respite was steered towards thinking about residential care for her son. What kind of system is that, when we are not even willing to put the tools and supports in place to help a child thrive? The answer given was residential care. This child is seven years of age. His parents are well aware that when he gets older that may be somewhere he will need to be but why is everything else not tried first? I cannot understand in this day and age why residential care is being recommended for a seven-year-old. It is very upsetting.

In respect of therapists, we have found something with a lot of the families that are accessing any form of service, communication or support from the CDNTs. We have not done a poll on this but I think the results would be quite interesting if we did. A lot of these families have had to go down the legal route. They are getting certain things because they have engaged with solicitors and had a court case. There are statistics on how much money the HSE spends every year fighting these court cases and kicking the ball down the road. It is the children, families and adults who are left to suffer. That seems to be the mindset. That mindset and the system need a big overhaul.