Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

It is about pounds, shillings and pence and unfortunately they are someone else's pounds, shillings and pence - the IMF and the ECB - all because we had a system, which we still have, where despite throwing money at it, we did not change how it operated. That is what we must do now and we must examine seriously at how we treat people with disabilities.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive is required to manage, deliver or arrange to be delivered on its behalf health and personal social services, including disability services. The HSE service plan for 2012 sets out a reduction of 3.7% in funding for disability services. The service plan states, however, and we fought hard for this, that at least 2% of this should not impact on services and must be generated from other savings and increased efficiencies.

The HSE is involved in ongoing collaborative work with the Disability Consultative Forum, which includes representative organisations and agencies from the disability sector. I am not dismissing those who have had the job before me, because they were as committed to the sector as me, but for the first time ever we had inserted in the budget statement that there would be flexibility for groups of people who deliver a service efficiently and effectively. For the first time, the HSE has the ability to be flexible about the 1.7%.

There are agencies who deliver an incredible service and who are most efficient. One agency reduced absenteeism from 18% to 3%. That must be rewarded; it was an incredible achievement. Cuts should not be applied across the sector to those who are inefficient and to those who are efficient. We must start looking at it in that way. There is a notion there is no fat within the system but there is.

The disability budget has been protected for two years and I give credit to the last Government for protecting it in the budgets before this Government came to power. For that, certain things were asked of the sector. In October and November, the Department of Health, in negotiation with the CEOs and the federation that represented disability service providers, asked which was preferable, a cut to the budget or demography funding. The clear message was that providers could manage from within their own resources if the budget was protected. We cannot say one thing in November and then send letters to parents in March that will frighten them in regard to the position of their children in September. We cannot go on like that. It is unfair on children and parents to face this constant battle every year. Demography funding was given €10 million but we are still saying we do not have enough for children leaving school in June and needing a place in September. A service cannot be run that way.

This is about planning and ensuring the person and the services provided to them are at the centre. The value for money review that is almost complete will give us the information we need. There are excellent service providers out there and we must reward them while bringing choice back to the centre of the debate.

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