Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Tully for the wide breadth of her questions. I will start with the good stories. The good story is about the neuro teams announced in the budget. That speaks a lot to MS and Parkinson's. The community neuro teams are really about putting services into the communities. Two things happened in this year's budget. One was the clinical neuro nurses going directly into the acute settings. There were 28 of them and there were the community neuro teams. That is about that multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary approach within the community and working across, regardless of whether it is MS, Parkinson's or Huntington's disease. Having that really good, proper team in operation is what is needed. I am ambitious. We do not need just two or three of them; we need one in each of the regional health areas, RHAs, as this unfolds. We need also to have teams that we can expand and that can work on the various specialties. We are working very closely with Brian Higgins in the HSE. He is leading out on the reform piece. The neuro mapping was done last year, which we funded. The neuro mapping is being done with Mags Rogers in the Neurological Alliance of Ireland, NAI, along with the Disability Federation of Ireland and the HSE. There is now a clear understanding as to what the need is. It is being funded. Two teams have been funded this year.

There is also the conversation about community health organisations, CHOs, 6 and 7, which were funded in 2018. Those teams have not been properly stood up. We are getting under the bonnet as to why that did not happen and we are working with Mr. Higgins on getting that funding spent and getting them operationalised. The ambition is by the end of this year that we would be talking about having four teams in position around the country and then finishing off what needs to be done.

That speaks to all the various disability groups, from the very small ones to the larger ones.

We finished the work on transport. Any funding that is within my budget has come across with me. I refer to the €2.5 billion, of which €44 million – believe it or not - is spent on transport. That has come across with me. Transport that is being provided will continue to be provided, but we are also talking to the Department of Finance – the report has been sent across – about how we can have a more targeted support to ensure we address a lot of the needs that we are all acutely aware of when it comes to disability.

Regarding service statements, what Deputy Tully is describing is no different to what Deputy Costello or Deputy O'Sullivan would describe. It is a bit hit and miss. Some CHOs give very detailed service statements. Others are not as detailed. Some do not have dates on it at all or do not do them. To be quite honest, it is very important to know what is to be achieved, but the intervention is what I am really focused on. That intervention and the continuation of interventions is the most important. I am not a big fan of filling out forms and repeating that. What I want to see is therapists delivering on interventions. That is what we need to focus on. Children need the interventions in a timely fashion, but there is a variance as to how service statements are being done.

Deputy Tully has hit on a very important point relating to respite. She refers to Cavan and Monaghan. I was down there. It is one week for children and one week for adults. It is not good enough. Both counties are big, and it is not correct that the two have to be interchangeable. Neither is it right to have buildings not in use. If there is a need for funding, that can be stepped up. We do take into consideration that there is an issue with the recruitment of staff. Many children and adults need access to respite. In fact, it is a priority for me and the Minister to ensure that families can have access to services. I appeal to any Oireachtas Member who knows of any building that is a designated respite house, that is not in use and is standing idle, to please come and tell me and I will work with the local CHO as part of our business cases to make sure that all of our respite houses are operationalised and we do not have any in vacant use. That cannot be allowed to happen.

I would also say to the local HSEs that where we have time-related savings, that would be one way I would encourage them to spend some of those savings.