Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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As I said earlier on, there absolutely are plans to expand residential care nationally. Unfortunately, last year, emergency residential care entirely ate up the budget for planned residential care. That is what happened. I am not talking about small money. As part of the action plan that I and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, are to launch, we need respite and residential care to be prioritised. Every county has to have sufficient respite and residential places. If respite services were there to support families, perhaps we would prevent such young children entering residential care. I do not know if it is ethically correct that supportive families are forced and given no other choice but to abandon their child at school. We have to look at every mechanism and lever to support families. Respite happens to be the main one and it does work.