Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly. I appreciate his coming to the House to take this Topical Issue matter as I know he is also participating in a debate in the Seanad.

We on this side of the House are very concerned about the discovery that of the €3 million allocated for the provision of services for children with autism, only €300,000 has been drawn down, primarily in the north Dublin area. I note that the Minister is a GP in that area and has his own personal circumstances. I am not questioning the validity of the decision to allocate €300,000 for services in north Dublin, but I am asking why the remainder of the money was not allocated. That is incomprehensible and has left us with an unequal and unfair distribution of supports elsewhere in the country. The records show that a senior disability official expressed disappointment to colleagues in the Department of Health that the Minister was funding only the north Dublin elements of her proposal. Likewise, the Health Service Executive's assistant national director for disability services, Dr. Cate Hartigan, has described it as regrettable that the available funding could not be used to promote equity and consistency across the country by improving access to services for all children with autism.

The review of services ordered by the Minister in 2012, following his expression of concern about spending in the area, has not been completed. More than a year later, a spokesperson for his office would only indicate that it would be done in the near future. People have a right to services and supports based on need and equity and there must be a proportionate distribution of funding for that purpose throughout the country. The Minister is the political heavyweight in north County Dublin. In fact, he is the northside bruiser in the Government and what we are seeing is a continual bias towards the funding and provision of services in and around his political heartland. I have no difficulty in supporting the allocation to north Dublin, but there must be equity in the distribution of funding across all services. The €3 million that was committed for services for children with autism must be spent in the next three years for the benefit of the entire country and not withheld on the basis that the promised review is not yet complete.

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