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

An extra €150 million is being put into disability services in 2019. Respite services are being developed and an additional €10 million has been provided in 2018 for services. I have visited the 12 new houses, the last of which will be completed in the next week or two. They are in each CHO area, with three in the greater Dublin area, and ten new respite centres have been opened to date.

There are issues over the need to develop more services and I will be working with organisations such as COPE in Cork, the Brothers of Charity, St. Joseph's Foundation and Enable Ireland. Additional funding allocated to Cork-Kerry community healthcare has been utilised to progress the development of a respite house in west Cork, which will be open on a phased basis from December 2018. It will be open to referrals for respite across County Cork. We have started investing in services but we are catching up, and I accept the point that there was underinvestment in these services. The reforms have begun and we have begun to put the focus on the person with the disability when we allocate funding.

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