Mr. Bernard O'Regan:

If the Deputy has a particular organisation in mind, I am happy to discuss that with her. We engage with a lot of organisations. We fund over 400 organisations on the disability side of the HSE. Issues relating to funding are very varied and can be quite complex. Some of them are easier to resolve than others and some need more explaining than some of the explanations provided to us so we need to work constantly to address that and we will do so.

It is important to say there is a core issue. The Department published the disability capacity review last year and it indicated that significant further investment in disability services is needed over the next decade or so. One of the drivers, albeit not the only one, of additional costs for service providers, both HSE and voluntary, is emergency need and responding to critical need - sometimes without a budget being available. This then leads to cost drivers for the organisation needing to be supplemented. That is very challenging because we cannot have a situation where everybody operates on the basis of the blank cheque and the ten-year investment programme we need has been spent before we even have it. We are trying to find the right balance in this regard. Ultimately, the State will have difficult decisions to make regarding whether it invests in this or that. There are pros and cons whichever way we go.

We have a programme led by a colleague that focuses on the stability and sustainability of organisations. It is working with a number of organisations. The goal of that work is for us to ultimately have a stable and sustainable service delivery system in Ireland that is properly resourced and organised and has the kind of reform that will be needed by the voluntary organisations. It is not just about money.