Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have heard the rewriting of history in my time but I have never experienced it to the extent that I heard in the previous speaker's contribution.

We are in the position we are in. I listened to Deputy Smith's comments on the awful time that was the late 1980s. This country has never found itself in a greater financial crisis than it does now. On the night when Labour begged Sinn Féin not to vote for the bank guarantee, it pooh-poohed us and still voted for it. Now its members have the brass neck to tell us that we should not be doing what we are doing to get the people of this country off the hook for the bank guarantee and what they would have done differently. That type of revisionism is breathtaking, to say the least. They voted for it even though we begged them not to and we are paying the price now. The country is only beginning to recover because of the hard work and dedication of our Government. Sinn Féin cannot disassociate itself from that night, nor should it try. I have never heard the likes in my life. Then again, Sinn Féin is good at revisionism.

As I only have a little time, I will set out the priorities for the coming year in my area of responsibility. In terms of older people, the priority will be the development of an integrated model of care with a strong emphasis on home care and other community services. Some €23 million is being transferred from the fair deal scheme budget to community services to deliver a greater range of care options, prevent unnecessary hospital admissions, avoid undue delays in discharges from acute hospitals and provide rehabilitation to support older people in returning home. This will occur in various stages. In the first stage, €10 million will provide 190 intensive home care packages, IHCPs, to benefit 250 people annually. Under the second stage, €3 million will be used to commission 25 intermediate-transitional care beds to benefit 650 people and 20 beds for complex cases to benefit 130 people. There is a particular difficulty in terms of intermediate and transitional beds, that is, the piece between home and hospital and vice versa, but we are hoping to address it. Far more will be necessary in the years to come, but this is nevertheless a significant start.

The third stage will see €10 million used to address funding shortfalls in the provision of public short-stay beds and maintain the current provision of 1,860 beds. This is seen as a first step in aligning the model of care more towards the community in line with Government policy and the expressed wishes of older people. It should be noted that the single assessment tool, SAT, project will implement a standardised IT-enabled health and social care needs assessment for older people nationally. Implementation will proceed as planned, with the first phase to commence in 2014 and a minimum of 50% of all new entrants to the nursing home support scheme, NHSS, and the home care package and home help schemes to be assessed by the SAT in the last quarter of 2014. There will be full implementation by the end of 2015.

Financial support for long-term nursing home care is provided under the NHSS. The budget for long-term residential care in 2014 is €939 million, a reduction of €35 million on the 2013 position. This reduction includes the €23 million that I have already outlined and that is being transferred from the NHSS budget to community services. The full details are on our website. The HSE's National Service Plan 2014 sets a target of 22,061 people to be in receipt of financial support towards the cost of long-term nursing home care by December 2014. This will be a reduction on the position that obtained at the end of 2013, the figures on which are not yet available but will be shortly. It is estimated that this reduction will be in the region of 700 to 800 people. The review of the NHSS will consider its long-term sustainability as well as related aspects of home and community care. Work on the review is ongoing and we are expecting its report shortly.

In 2014, the key deliverables in terms of mental health are the delivery of an implementation plan for the remaining three years of A Vision for Change; promoting positive mental health and improving suicide prevention, including the development of a new strategic framework to enhance the implementation and governance approaches associated with suicide and outstanding actions for Reach Out, the national suicide prevention strategy; and addressing fundamental issues within mental health services, including the commencement of a number of key projects to address ICT gaps, that is, how we connect with one another and use the information that is necessary for planning, the development of an initial workforce plan for 2014 to bring certainty around essential replacements, and an improved training and development strategy for mental health.

Disability is the area in which the greatest change is about to come. Currently, the Government provides funding of approximately €1.5 billion to the disability services programme through the HSE's national service plan. This is just a fraction of what is spent on disability, but it is the amount for which I have responsibility. The Government is committed to protecting front-line services for people with disabilities to the greatest possible extent. In 2014, the HSE is seeking to maximise the provision of services within available resources and to maintain a consistent level with that provided in 2013 by providing the following specialist disability services: residential services to more than 9,000 people with disabilities; day services to more than 22,000 people with intellectual and physical disabilities; respite residential support for more than 7,500 people with intellectual and physical disabilities; and 3.7 million hours of personal assistance-home support. An additional €14 million has been provided to address the priority needs within the disability services that arise as crises every year, for example, emergency admissions and people leaving services and schools. Surely if we know the numbers each year, we cannot continue to call it a crisis. Therefore, we have made provision in this regard. We have also put in train a system by which we must be notified much earlier of how many people will be leaving services and what their needs will be. This will be a major improvement on what has existed to date.

Some €4 million has been provided to deliver the required increase in services for children with disabilities, including autism, and to reduce waiting lists under the progressing disability services for children and young people programme, that is, people from birth to 18.

Value for money savings and cost containment measures of €5 million in sections 38 and 39 agencies have been identified but have not yet been allocated to the disability budget. The level of home support and personal assistance hours provided in 2014 will be the same as that provided in 2013. A total of 150 people will be facilitated in moving from institutions to homes in the community. The level of respite care provided will also remain at 2013 levels.

I will briefly address the mobility allowance. We are working on legislation as a result of our investigation into how we can best provide for people who are in need of this personalised allowance. I reassure those who rely on this allowance that nothing will happen until the legislation comes to fruition. It is our intention that as many people as possible be safeguarded.

I am always conscious that the last of the areas for which I am responsible - it should be at the very front, of course - is that of equality. We completed two reports today, those being, a mid-term review of the national women's strategy and an evaluation of what needs to be done by 2016. We are also working on a parental leave Bill. The situation is more complex than people might have imagined and we are conscious to ensure mothers retain their current levels of protection. We hope to publish the legislation towards the end of the year.

We are also working on a way to stop domestic violence instead of simply patching people up and sending them home.

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