Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy and without getting into any specifics, it is within the gift of every CDNT manager and every CHO disability manager to decide how to operate and manage their assessment of needs process. They get a budget and they know themselves if they have the capacity within their teams. If they do not have the capacity within their teams, they know how they can procure services because they have funding allocated for that. To be fair to Bernard Gloster, he no longer has a limit on what is being procured. He gives the managers the opportunity, if they do not have the capacity, to go out and purchase. If a child is on a particular team that does not have the capacity, the disability manager can procure an assessment of need for that child. It is within the manager's power to do that. To be honest, managers have done that, not just in one CHO but in a number of them. There has to be a system of equity and fairness in how that is done.

On respite, since 2020 there has been a significant increase in funding for respite, equating to a 57.8% increase or €49.3 million, bringing the budget to €134 million in 2024. A huge amount of money has been spent on respite. This goes back to the issues of forward planning, services knowing the age of service users and their changing needs, the number of young people needing respite, the number of ageing families, the number of people who are over 20 days in respite care who need to go to residential care in order to create more capacity and so on.

To be fair, I have been in the Deputy's area of CHO 3 three times, opening three different houses. We are expanding services and CHO 3 is one of the most progressive in the country when it comes to respite care. That said, there is not enough of it and I acknowledge that. There is more to do but it is one part of this Department that we have been trying to get right for the last four years. It is down to the good management of Ms Loughman, from an accounts point of view, and to the direction of travel within our Department. Respite is critical to family stability and the keeping together of the unit. It is also really important for young people to be able to be with their own peers.