Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the lack of residential placements for adults with severe disabilities, in particular where they are cared for by one or both elderly parents. I would imagine this is an issue of which the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, is acutely conscious. There are families in such circumstances who are existing day by day beyond crisis point.

I recently put down a parliamentary question asking the HSE for data on the overall number of people with disabilities on a waiting list for a residential placement. The HSE stated in the reply there is no centrally maintained list of people waiting for residential services. However, the need for more residential facilities was acknowledged and the HSE continues to explore the issue. The HSE is not even aware of the number of people with severe disabilities who are currently on a waiting list for a residential placement.

Last year, I was informed by the COPE Foundation in Cork that it has 168 people on a waiting list for residential supports. It has divided these into three categories. Priority level No. 1 involves 27 cases where two parents are deceased or the one sole carer is incapacitated in some way. For priority level No. 2, it had 20 cases which involved the person living with elderly parents and with significant issues of concern for the family coping. The remainder, 121, were priority level No. 3. That is one service provider alone. Has the Minister of State the overall data? If he does not, will he get it because we need to know the extent of this problem?

What really brought it home to me was one individual case on which I have been working for some time. Unfortunately, it is ongoing. This case involves elderly parents in their mid-70s providing full-time care for a profoundly disabled daughter in her early 40s. She is non-verbal and wheelchair-bound. They have to do absolutely everything for her. They can be woken up several times during the night when she gets upset. They have to do their very best to care for her. I have taken them through the process. They have raised their case with the service provider and the HSE. Their daughter is on a waiting list but there is absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel for her. According to the COPE Foundation’s categorisation, she is not even priority level No. 1 because both her parents are alive. They are elderly and have their own health issues but they are alive.

A senior manager with the HSE said the problem is that it is not getting the funding from the Government to provide these residential places. The parents in question literally have no hope. They go to bed every night with one worry, namely, what happens when they die, whether it is one or both of them. Their daughter will then be elevated to priority level No. 1 within the HSE’s categorisation. Even with that, there is no guarantee, however, that she will get a residential placement. Presumably, some emergency support will kick in. It is an appalling situation. The fact the HSE does not even know how many people are on this waiting list beggars belief.

I hope the Minister of State will shed some light on it today and give some hope to families like the one in question who encouraged me to bring this issue to his attention.

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