Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue for discussion. I also welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, to the House. I was here this time last year raising a similar issue and thankfully the difficulties were addressed for the parents and children in question. Unfortunately, we are back again this year with new parents and new children facing the same concerns. I acknowledge that under the HSE national service plan 2013, €4 million was made available to meet the needs of those leaving school and of rehabilitative training, which is welcome. However, according to information I have received, that sum will not be enough.

HSE west has been allocated €932,000 of the €4 million. In Galway, the allocation is €210,000 but an additional €600,000 will be needed to deal with the number of children coming on stream this year. There are about 80 children in Galway, 46 of whom will need additional resources and of these, the Brothers of Charity have 19. The Brothers have endured five years of cuts and rationalisation. They have eaten into their own reserves and have been very prudent in recent years. Those reserves are now gone. At this stage they have stated that they will not be able to take in any new service users and if they do, it will be at the expense of services to existing users. This is not acceptable. There are safety concerns involved too as the Brothers feel it would not be safe to take in additional children. It is also worth noting that this is the first year that children in the Ábalta special school in Galway will be coming on stream. Many of these children have high-level needs and some have a requirement for 24/7 care. Will new resources be made available, in addition to the €4 million that has already been allocated, to ensure that these children and their parents have peace of mind and to ensure there will be services available to them in September?

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