Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

They are the parents of children with severe intellectual disabilities from our constituency in Dún Laoghaire. They have found out in the past few weeks that respite services provided in Dunmore House, part of Carmona Services, are being slashed. What was previously a 24-7 respite service is proposed to be watered down to a fraction of the service that it previously was such that, for example, one mother who had an allocation of two days a week and one weekend per month of respite will now only have one day a month and one weekend every two months. Another mother told me that if these cuts go ahead, she will have to cancel an important medical procedure next week as she will have no one to mind her child on the day of her appointment.

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