Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to focus on the number of places available for overnight respite. In CHO 1, which includes my county of Donegal, there was a cut of one third in the number of overnight facilities for respite between quarter 2 of 2017 and quarter 2 of 2018, amounting to 400 nights being taken out of the system. The Minister of State can talk about increases in budget, something we do not dispute, but for parents on the ground the services are getting worse. The Minister of State can shake his head all he wants but the figures are there to prove it and they show that there was a reduction from 1,334 to 900 in that period. How can the Minister of State claim that represents improvement, or even stabilisation, is beyond me.

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