Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Acting Chairman, Deputy Terence Flanagan, knows, the St. Michael’s House group is an excellent organisation providing care, residential services and respite to persons with intellectual disabilities and their families living in Dublin and north Leinster. The organisation has been operational for more than 57 years, and in my time as a public representative, I have been consistently reminded of the vital contribution St. Michael’s House makes to the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

St. Michael's House is the largest provider of intellectual disability services in Dublin and the third largest provider of such services nationally. It currently provides day services to 1,679 citizens and residential services to 454 citizens. The majority of the group’s services are in the HSE north east region. Its budget from the HSE, which has been savagely cut in recent years, is approximately €68 million.

It is operating under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. It has the largest residential waiting list nationally, with 330 people on the priority list for residential services. It accounts for 18% of the national waiting list, with just under 6% of the possible beds. St. Michael’s House maintains that 52 of the families with people on the waiting list are in serious difficulty at present. In recent weeks, constituents whose family members receive vital services from St. Michael’s House contacted me in a state of distress because of the potential consequences for their families of the most recent proposed cuts to funding to the organisation.

Since 2008, the budget for St. Michael’s House has been cut by more than €12 million. This has posed an almost impossible challenge for the organisation because of the continued high demand for its services. In contrast to the declining budget, the number of people using St. Michael’s House services has increased, with 250 more people using the day services and 45 more people in its residential services than in 2008. On top of this, St. Michael’s House continues to accept all new children referred to its services, and the current referral rate is 14 infants per month. Another challenge posed is the decline in staff numbers owing to the moratorium on recruitment. There are approximately 1,100 staff in the organisation, but since 2009, St. Michael’s House has had to carry on providing more services to more people with 240 fewer staff.

On 9 August, the organisation received information that, on top of the 1.36% cut applied to its budget allocation for 2013, a further €1 million was to be taken from the organisation’s budget. There was also the impact of the Haddington Road agreement on clinical and other staff. I am heartened to note that following efforts from our constituents - I hope and trust the Acting Chairman is involved in this - some of the €1 million cut has been rowed back. Families of those availing of the services are terrified, however, that cuts to the service could include contraction of residential and respite services, the closure of residential services for one Sunday per month, the ending of the St. Michael’s House rent subsidy in residential services, the end of the trainee allowance, reductions in transport so that staff and families will be required to provide transport, and no new residential places or long-term placement. As we approach 15 October, the families of those availing of St. Michael House's services may be faced with some such menu for 2014, which would be appalling.

I recently spoke to Ms Patricia Doherty, its chief executive officer. She has been forced to advise families of the grave fears among her management team that there will be an unavoidable impact. As in so many other areas, the people are begging the Government in two or three weeks to end austerity and get out of the horrendous rut of cutting which is damaging our economy. These are the most vulnerable of our fellow citizens. We have a duty of care to them and their families, who may have looked after them for 20, 30 or more years. In the budget for 2014, I urge the Government not to make further cuts and to ameliorate the impact of existing cuts.

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