Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I will take the Adjournment on behalf of my colleague, Deputy Mary Harney, the Minister for Health and Children. From the outset, I wish to emphasise the Government's commitment to providing a high-quality service to all people with a disability. This commitment is illustrated by the substantial investment we have been making in disability services over the past number of years.

In recent times, significant additional resources have been provided for services and supports in this area. The multi-annual investment programme, which is a key component of the Government's disability strategy, will by the end of 2008 have provided for 980 new residential places; 313 new respite places, and 2,505 new day places for the intellectual disability service. It will also have provided for 300 new residential places and 950,000 extra home care and personal assistance hours for people with physical and sensory disabilities.

Funding was also provided for the targeted transfer of persons with intellectual disability and autism from psychiatric hospitals and other inappropriate placements. Since 2006, more than €550 million has been allocated to the HSE under the multi-annual investment programme, of which €425 million was for disability services and €125 million for mental health.

The Government has further emphasised this pledge to people with disabilities by allocating additional funding to the continued development and enhancement of services in 2009. In the budget for 2009, an additional €10 million was allocated to the HSE for services in the area of disability and mental health. The funding for 2009 will provide for 125 additional therapy posts in the disability and mental health services area, targeted at children of schoolgoing age. Once-off funding of €1.75 million will be provided for suicide prevention initiatives and for mental health projects supporting service users and carers.

With regard to the specific matters raised by Deputies Noonan and O'Donnell, the HSE has confirmed that the full level of funding approved by it to the Brothers of Charity for the delivery of services to people with intellectual disability in 2008 will be paid to the organisation this year subject to normal and agreed financial procedures. The budget for the Brothers of Charity in Limerick in 2008 is approximately €29 million. This represents an increase of 64% since 2002, when its budget was €17.6 million.

At present, 262 clients receive residential services from the organisation and a further 125 receive day services. In addition, the Brothers of Charity work in partnership with the HSE and other service providers in the Limerick area in the provision of early intervention services.

The Brothers of Charity services in Limerick have been in discussion with the HSE about core deficits for some time. In documents supplied to the HSE, the Brothers of Charity in Limerick refer to a deficit of €1.5 million. In 2006, the core deficit stood at €750,000. The HSE considers that the increase since 2006 is the result of the combination of a number of factors, including an increase in staff numbers above the levels approved and funded by the HSE.

At the beginning of 2008, the organisation indicated that it had approximately 50 staff over the levels approved and funded by the HSE. While the organisation has indicated the need to enhance service delivery and staffing levels to address particular difficulties, HSE policy is that, prior to employing additional staff over approved levels, all other alternatives must be explored by the relevant organisation.

In 2008 an efficiency savings target of 1% was introduced by the HSE for all voluntary organisations providing services for people with a disability. The objective of this initiative was for organisations to review all non-front line expenditure and generate savings of this order through improved practices. In this way, any core deficits should not have been impacted.

It is essential that every health service provider takes responsibility for reviewing all expenditure in a proactive way and revisits approaches to service delivery, to ensure that front line services are prioritised within available resources. The HSE does not believe that the Brothers of Charity have yet explored all other alternatives to ensure the services are delivered within the funding available to them.

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