Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree absolutely with the Minister of State and my colleague opposite that this is really good news for everybody who needs respite care. It is a start but it is not the final answer. It is a way of finding a reasonable solution. There is nothing reasonable about people who are on their own who cannot cope. There is nothing reasonable about a person bringing a family member to a house in the middle of the night, only to be refused entry and having to go to an acute hospital instead to take up an acute bed with a security person outside the door and all sorts of other issues. It is an unacceptable situation. This will definitely help to resolve it. There is no doubt about that and I welcome it. I welcome the commitment to ongoing discussions and the Talbot Bower House proposal, which I visited. It is a very fine place.

This is an issue on which all political parties stood together. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and the Labour Party stood together to push for something and we got it. It is a positive result for a community that needs 100% support.

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