John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The funding will be in place for the children in question. There has been a delay in explaining how soon it will come through. Most of the concerns raised, quite properly, by the voluntary organisations were raised because they had not heard that the funding was in place. The reality is that once we can commit ourselves to allocating the funding, the issue will be dealt with.

I am pleased to take this opportunity to address the important issues raised by Deputies Creed and O'Donnell. As they will be aware, within the health and training sector, a range of training, health and personal social day services are provided by several State agencies, including the HSE, non-statutory agencies funded by the HSE and specialist training providers funded by and behalf of FÁS, to young people with disabilities when they leave school.

On the question of training, particularly the provision of life skills training, otherwise referred to as rehabilitative training, the HSE and HSE-funded agencies provide such training services for persons with disabilities to enhance their individual skill level. The services focus on the enhancement of an individual's care, fundamental skills, life skills and social skills.

The outcome of rehabilitative training is not predetermined but is dependent on the level of the development capacity of each individual. Consequently, it is important that training services be matched to a person's need. In meeting such needs, the HSE employs guidance officers at local level to assist in the profiling of young school leavers with disabilities to appropriate training and day services. The guidance officers work with school leavers, their families, school authorities and service providers to ensure that school leavers with disabilities have access to appropriate services.

The co-ordination and planning of services to meet the needs of people with disabilities form a central tenet of the national disability strategy. A critical element of such co-ordination and planning is the requirement to provide financial support for the development and implementation of services.

On funding requirements for service development for HSE-funded services, the Government has set aside specific funds for service delivery for people with disabilities under the multi-annual investment programme. Significant additional funding has already been provided and has been spent on developing new and enhanced health and personal social services for people with a disability, including young people leaving school in the period 2006 to 2007. These areas will continue to be the focus of developments for the remaining years of the multi-annual investment programme, 2008 and 2009.

The Government provided the HSE with an additional €75 million in both 2006 and 2007. This funding resulted in an additional 506 day places and 492 day places in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

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