Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Bannon and Troy for raising this matter. I am pleased to take this opportunity to outline the Government's position on the matters raised by the Deputies. I am taking this debate on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch.

Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive, HSE, is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services, including disability services. St. Christopher's provide disability services locally on behalf of the HSE that are subject to service arrangements which are monitored and reviewed at quarterly meetings with HSE disability management.

St. Christopher's Services is funded under section 39 of the Health Act and is expected to receive €8.24 million from the HSE in 2014. Like all non-statutory providers, St. Christopher's is responsible for the management of its resources within the allocated funding. The HSE has been notified by St. Christopher's of its financial difficulty, particularly in services at Marion Avenue, Ballymahon and Morlea House, Longford. I have been assured by the HSE that it is working closely with the board of directors of St. Christopher's to address its funding concerns.

A number of measures to reduce the funding deficit have been proposed and meetings are ongoing in this regard. The HSE is committed to working with St. Christopher's to assist it to find efficiencies within its service and, therefore, come in on budget. I have been assured that the HSE's priority is to support adults and children and their families who rely on disability services provided by St. Christopher's in the Longford-Westmeath area and to ensure that a sustainable service will be in place for the future.

The programme for Government committed to putting national standards for residential services for persons with disabilities on a statutory footing to ensure that services could be inspected by the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA. The introduction of registration and inspection represents a significant advance in terms of developing consistent and high quality services for persons with disabilities in residential services, including St. Christopher's. The purpose of the regulations is to safeguard and support the delivery of person-centred care to vulnerable persons of any age who are receiving residential care services and ensure that their health, well-being and quality of life is promoted and protected. This will empower providers to deliver even higher quality services in future.

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