Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and thank the Minister for attending here in person for this issue.

This relates to a special school in my constituency, St. Francis's special school in Beaufort, which mostly serves mid-Kerry, but there are children coming to that school from Kenmare and from as far away as Castleisland. The 52 children who attend there have high dependence needs and require specialised care. The problems arose last year when the services were reconfigured. The various multidisciplinary services that are required there, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and physiotherapy, were delivered by an on-site team and the changes meant that there would be professionals coming in from outside delivering the services. The reconfiguration process for the school was an unmitigated disaster. I have attended a number of public meetings there and have engaged with parents on a regular basis over the past nine months on this, and have met with HSE officials in the county about it.

While the situation has improved somewhat of late in regard to the allocation of hours and the time being spent in the school by the professionals concerned, at the same time the difference in terms of the overall amount of service available to the children compared to what used to be there is far too great and the children who need help are not getting enough help. To compound matters, in the past number of months The Arches, the adjacent respite centre which was available for parents to bring their children to for respite purposes, is no longer available because of various problems that have been encountered by those delivering the services locally. Ultimately, it means there is no respite service available for those who previously would have used this service.

An alternative facility, the Home from Home facility in Ballydowney in Killarney, which provides an excellent service, has approached the HSE and indicated that it is willing to make its physical facility available should the HSE take up the offer and resource the facility with the required staff to provide the valuable and needed respite service, and I hope that this can be done. Locally, the HSE tells me that there is a problem with The Arches respite centre and the HSE is trying to get that sorted out. Ultimately, the children are suffering. Their parents are also suffering. In one family from Kenmare that I am aware of, a parent of a child with high dependency needs had to be hospitalised leaving the other parent alone to take care of that child. That parent is under enormous pressure and has no respite option at all. I understand the parent was given one night of respite. It is not good enough. We need to grab the bull by the horns here and address this for the sake of everyone involved.

I ask the Minister to look at the reconfiguration process and see where it has fallen down, particularly in this instance for this special school. I ask him to consider the broader element of the reconfiguration process but, more specifically in this case, if he could tackle the problem we have with the need for urgent respite care and extra multidisciplinary services for these children.

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