Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To follow up on that, further to a letter from the committee about those grants that are under review, the Minister wrote a letter I will share with the committee over the next day or so. There is no need for the Minister of State to look at me so. There are a number of things. She said the section 39 organisations were paused in respect of the two sides coming together on it. It is crucially important that is brought to a conclusion. The Minister of State met with Rehab today and its representatives were previously in the audiovisual room, with all party and Oireachtas Members invited to the event. They talked about the number of staff vacancies they had. There is a real recruitment and retention issue. While I think there is an acceptance at Government level, it is important that is driven home again. While the talks are paused, it is important that anything that can be done on it at the Minister of State’s level needs to be done.

The Minister of State mentioned delivery. I refer to when a decision is made to fund something and when it actually becomes a facility. She and I spoke about a project for which people were looking for €50,000 and for which a commitment was given in January. There were then emails back to the project developer. We have lost the summer in terms of the service that could have been provided for kids and young people with disabilities. The HSE has gone to ground in the past six or seven weeks on a project that is costing €50,000, not €500,000 or €500 million. It reflects very poorly on the system that a decision was made in January and we are now in the second half of September and that project has still not been delivered.

Those who would have delivered it would have had it ready in two or three weeks, and it could have been used by people.

The Minister of State spoke about respite. Many of the section 38 and 39 organisations, urban and rural, are looking at the shortcomings or challenges for families and people with disabilities, and they are coming up with innovative ideas to move beyond and get facilities. We came up with the project of alternative respite because of the HIQA regulations and all the other regulations and hoops that have to be driven through. We met with officials from the HSE in the first week of February. While it was embraced, one could nearly see the officials looking at it and asking how they were going to pause this or how it was going to work, and saying it is a great project and a wonderful idea, and fair play to us for coming out with it, but out the door you go and that is that. One could feel that.

We really have to challenge the system when organisations, community groups or individuals go to Department. Section 38 and 39 organisations, be they private sector organisations or otherwise, are providing the services on behalf of the State. We have bemoaned at various levels in the Oireachtas over the years how the State set up services for health and education at different levels but that were not administered by the State. However, section 38 and 39 organisations were community organisations that came together because the need was not being met by the State.

Alternative respite is well worth looking at. Of course, the Minister of State will be glad to know that the Kanturk Meelaherragh project is moving forward. We are hoping that planning will be granted in the next few days, and we will be ready to go with it. I thank the Minister of State for the effort. She might reflect on the fact that we had to get her intervention to make sure that was funded. She knows and understands the importance of that project. She said it should be in every CHO. We had a Minister whose ears were open to the project and who understood and was passionate about it. If we did not have that access, this project would never have got off the ground. The system has to be better than that. We meet with officials and think we have them on board, but it needs to be better than that. It is almost as if, although the bright ideas are grand, they say, "That is great now, we will give them a clap on the back, but we have no intention of delivering it", until there is a crisis and an issue. If the Minister of State was to reflect on the past four and a half years, I am not sure how she would create a system that would react better. Perhaps she does not want to comment on it, but I would like her opinion.

Much work has been done on developing day centres in different locations over the last four years for people who are leaving full-time education and who are looking for day places. However, the biggest challenge now, and this is not within the Minister of State's Department, is for people going from primary school into second level. There is a real issue, which the Minister of State mentioned at the very start, whereby we have kids in July and August who do not know where they are going when they finish up in primary school. They or their parents have no idea where the next phase is going to be. Surely to God, we need to be moving that on. In the Minister of State's deliberations with the Ministers over the next few days, a discussion should be had about how carer's allowance should be care assessed instead of means tested. If a person is providing the care, it should be-----