James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

Would the Minister of State accept that there is a long waiting list for beds in the national rehabilitation unit and that families are trying to cope at home with seriously injured or disabled loved ones? Does he also accept that there is capacity in nursing homes, at least one of which has a brain injury unit, to take people from the national rehabilitation centre whose treatment phase is finished and who need a safe place in which to stay? These places are not being taken up because of the cutbacks and, as a consequence, the patients to which I refer, one of whom is in Swords in my constituency, are suffering undue and needless hardship?

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