Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Back in January we met with the HSE and the St. Joseph's Foundation in Charleville about providing alternative respite. Some of the service providers would have been able to take families away for two or three weekends, for example to Trabolgan and so on. They were doing four weekends but they are no longer available. They put forward a proposal for some of their buildings to be used for activities but they have since got extra buildings. Is there an initiative from within the HSE and the Department of Health to look at who is putting up their hand to develop meaningful, alternative respite? Many families would not be able to go on a traditional holiday or the standard holiday such as those the majority of us can benefit from. The expertise is needed and the right surroundings. Many of the service providers have built up a lot of activities within their facilities, such as hydrotherapy pools, Astroturf and different developments, over the years. Some have built up garden centres. They close every Friday evening from 5 p.m. until 8 a.m on Monday morning. It could be alternative respite if they were encouraged to open up and see if it is possible to build that kind of respite service throughout the country. From my interaction with many of the service providers throughout the country, I know they would be very engaged. There are issues in ensuring they have teams available to work those weekends, and that comes to recruitment within the HSE, and then it comes back to a wall they cannot go beyond. Has that developed into policy the Department officials would be pushing up line to develop?