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

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I accept and acknowledge she is blameless in this matter and this is not her area of accountability. However, my views have not changed. This is departmental gobbledygook and it is unacceptable. While I am not being pejorative towards the Minister of State, whom I respect, I reject the rubbish she has been given to read out, which suggests I have to tell the mother of that child and other parents that nothing is going to happen, because that is what it means. The money is there. The problem is that the process will continue until perhaps the third quarter of this year before anything happens.

I want to be constructive. I ask the Minister of State to bring my comments back to the Department. I ask her to listen to what was said on "Morning Ireland" this morning during the interview with the mother of that child and another mother who accompanied her, who spoke in tears about her two sons who are now in their 20s and cannot and did not get respite. I repeat what I have said, namely, the HSE should make an immediate and urgent application given the exceptional circumstances which apply. Last April the HSE responded in writing to me about all the things it was going to do but it did none of them. As an exceptional measure, I would ask it to do this now.

I spoke to two of the service providers today. Different service providers will be able, if asked, to provide a quote to the HSE if the HSE wants to do that. I will be back here next week on this issue. I am talking to the Secretary General of the Department of Health, the Minister for Health, the Taoiseach and the whole damn lot of them. They are not doing their job in this case. It is unacceptable that, after due process in the Department, after the political system has said this money is being provided, it is not being used.

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