Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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It certainly is a postcode lottery. It does not matter if there is disparity in polices; if the funding is not there, people are not going to get the services. The CHO area where I live and which I represent, CHO 7, is twice the size of some of the other CHOs. It is in a rapidly growing area, and is playing catch-up the whole time. When we have our annual meeting with them, we are told that they have historically been poorly funded in this regard. We might have one single HSE but we do not have one HSE standard. Whether it is caused by policies or funding, it is a postcode lottery for people. We have to get to grips with that because we are failing people who are not getting even the limited supports that they should be getting in comparison to other areas. How do we address that? We have to look at the policies but also the funding. We could narrow it down to disability supports, as the Deputy said. Many organisations that deliver disability supports are not directly provided by the HSE but they are outsourced to them, which is another aspect that could further complicate matters. We have to be very specific. One nearly needs to have the briefing from the HSE and have a discussion on it before representatives are called in to get a benefit from it.

There are multiple issues involved. How can we resolve them?