Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I express my full sympathy with the family. I have dealt with many families who are very distressed in dealing with children of this nature, trying to access services and having a clear understanding of what is available for them. The Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, has been working hard to try to improve the access to both information and service and he has applied additional funds to these purposes. The Minister of State has expanded the number of places, for example, for adults - children who reach the age of 18 and need additional places.

Clearly, this is an area of respite which, from my own experience, is a particularly acute pressure point in that provisions have been made in good faith for respite provision but because of a particular individual who has very challenging behaviour, sometimes it is not possible to continue to provide the planned respite because all attention has to be devoted to one very complex case. We need to have a better planning framework for this.

In my own area in education, we have made very substantial increases in provision for children with special education needs - a 41% increase in the case of resource teachers and 32% in the case of SNAs. We are investing very substantial funds to try to support children like this, staying in the education system and having their caring needs supported through the education system.

I am glad that Deputy Louise O'Reilly is able to report that the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, is meeting the family in question and I will certainly bring her concern to his attention. In my own area, I have seen pressure on respite in the recent past due specifically to difficulties in dealing with particular individuals and we need to try to plan for that in a better way. That is why we are seeking to develop a ten-year approach to health issues so that we can plan these resources in a consistent way. In the same way, the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, is developing a disability strategy so that these various elements can be resolved.

I understand that the HSE keeps a certain emergency capacity to try to deal with very special cases in a sympathetic way. Clearly, this is a case that it has sought to respond to.

All I can say is that I will certainly report the Deputy's concern to the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, who, to be fair to him, is striving continuously to make the case not only for additional resources but for additional understanding of the needs of people with a disability throughout our services. He is making very significant progress in that area.

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