Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 19 June 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters

Rights-Based Approach to Day Services (Resumed): Discussion

5:30 pm

Ms Tara Molloy:

We do not offer transport per se to every service user who attends a day service in St. Michael's House. We look at the cohort that probably needs it most, such as our wheelchair users and people who cannot independently get on a bus to their day service and cannot use public transport. We have continued to offer that service. Transport is a national issue because it is not funded, but we have continued to offer the service to these people. We currently have approximately 221 service users on 33 routes, so there are quite a lot of buses. We have outsourced the majority of those to a regulated third party, and that works quite well. However, we must remember that these bus services will need the right people on them, and that includes a driver and an escort. We make sure they are trained. We meet them before they even start to drive for us and before they escort our service users. It is quite a bespoke service and, as I said, it is unfunded. We have looked at the waiting list. If we were to offer the current cohort on the waiting list, and if we were to outsource it, we would be looking at approximately €3.5 million per year. It therefore significantly adds to our deficit every year. It is an annual-----