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

I thank the Minister and appreciate his response. The HSE has responded to me about The Arches and the difficulty with a particular resident. However, one difficult resident should not prevent everyone else from being able to use the service. Perhaps the Minister might liaise with the HSE to bring about a more speedy resolution of the problem. A few weeks is a very long time to wait for respite care for the parent of a child with moderate or profound special needs. Perhaps the Minister might use his good offices to try to speed up a resolution of the matter.

Will the Minister ask the HSE to liaise with the Home from Home service to see whether there is a possibility of providing extra respite care places through its facilities? The service does fantastic work while operating on a shoestring budget. The option should be explored to see whether more places could be provided in a cost-effective manner.

On the reconfiguration process in general, I received an e-mail from a parent which I will not read because, unfortunately, I do not have the time to do so. The parent who wrote it is very frustrated and calls it as she sees it. She accepts that the reconfiguration might have merit in the overall scheme of things, but it has not worked in the case of St. Francis special school where it has resulted in a serious depletion of services. I acknowledge that there were serious teething problems at the start and that there were difficulties with staffing. I appreciate the provision of extra resources and the four additional posts sanctioned in County Kerry for which I lobbied. I am grateful that they have been provided, but that said, it does not seem to be enough to have the level of service required in the school in question and the matter must be revisited for the sake of the children. Will the Minister revisit the issue and examine the level of service being provided in the facility because clearly it is not enough and the children deserve better?

See this speech in context