Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Parents of children with special needs, whether intellectual or physical, should not have to fight the system in the way Deputy Moynihan describes. Our intention is to improve the services. Let me give an example of what is happening. Under the Health Service Executive 2016 national service plan, the priority is to protect the level of services provided in 2015 and to provide 1.3 million hours of personal assistance services as well as 2.6 million hours of home support to over 2,000 adults with a disability. These are precise figures on the improvement in personal assistance hours.

Historically, parents of children with a disability in this country have had to fight too hard for services. We know that. In an improving economic situation we are now in a position where more services are being provided. That is the reality. There are 850 extra SNAs. Parents who need special needs assistants in schools for their children will see the benefit of this in the coming school term. Extra money has been allocated with over €1 billion in our budget for special needs assistants.

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