Mr. Reinhard Schäler:

The main ask is to allow us take up the opportunity we are presented with and start building the national centre for life and living with a severe acquired brain injury next year. We have extraordinary support for this. In my mind, that is a unique opportunity and it might just go away if we do not take it up. Dublin City Council has identified a site and has given us a letter saying it is holding this for us. The HSE is supportive of phase 1 and the two first hubs, which is basically a reflection of what we do at the moment. There is a social hub and therapy hub and it says it is happy to finance and support it. There have been meetings with the chief valuer of Dublin City Council and I believe the HSE has received a proposal this week for the transfer of the land to the HSE.

We have an incredible design and planning committee group that represents some of the biggest companies in Ireland. The group helps us from a planning, design, engineering, architectural and legal point of view. They all do that for free. I do not really want to say this but if you look at what it has cost just to plan some of the sheds and huts around here, to get a whole campus for free and to be presented with this on a plate is great. Having an organisation behind this that has a proven track record to deliver on what it promises is fantastic. This is a service, and the HSE itself has said this in its report which the committee has, that has been repeatedly demonstrated is needed and is a service An Saol Foundation effectively delivers and is a service that needs to be expanded. It could position Ireland internationally as a leading provider of these kinds of services. There is a unique opportunity and that is the main ask we have.

Deputy Coveney referred to the budget and that is the other ask. It is surprising to see the HSE make recommendations for the development of our service and then not allow us to do that because it says we can only do what we get the money for. It asked us what we need to start implementing some of the recommendations in May 2023 and we told it we needed €880,000. It asked us again and we said we told the HSE that before. I then received an email saying we were getting €600,000. We spent €570,000 last year, but with the increase in costs, that is not really an increase at all. It is in fact a reduction in funding. That is the second ask.

The third ask is more medium to long term and will require not just capital funding for the remaining two hubs, the respite and transitional living ones, but also revenue funding to run the service. That is an issue and a point CHO 9 has a problem with because it says if it pays us to run that service, it has to take that money away from somewhere else so it has to be additional funding.