Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry to hear they are being told that there is no hope. We gave one of the services mentioned, Cope Foundation in Cork, increased funding in the last two weeks. I have already visited and met the management team there, and I will be going back in the future.

I take the point on the issue of residential places, where we have a particular problem. The Deputy mentioned the Brothers of Charity, who are providing 184 residential places, Cope Foundation is providing 437 residential places and the Cork Association for Autism is providing 16 places. There is work going on, although I accept we have a hell of a lot more to do. With regard to funding for disability services, we have to prioritise residential services, particularly those where older parents are taking care of adults with an intellectual disability but have no residential care available.

With regard to the HSE budget, in 2018 we are spending €1.7 billion, an increase of €92 million on last year. The figures are as follows: there were 182,500 respite over-nights, 42,552 day respite sessions, 135 new home supports for emergency cases, 130 residential places and 120 in-home respite supports for emergency cases. There was also the additional €10 million to provide respite services.

The bottom line, when we break down all the figures, is that in budget 2019, as I and the Deputy know and as I have said to the Government, we need 400 emergency residential places.

See this speech in context