Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The big questions here are about those who fall through the cracks and, even on the Minister of State's own figures, not everybody is getting a place. The Minister of State, in fairness to him, has met one or two of my constituents who were stuck for a place. They should not be stuck. They are citizens of the country and should be provided with the services to which they are entitled under the HSE new directions policy.

It seems that every year, around this time, there is worry, anxiety and a fight to find placements. This is an annual thing for some families, and the Minister of State knows some of these people, because they have not yet been able to get a suitable placement. All the organisations do fantastic work but some young adults with severe intellectual disabilities find it much more difficult to get placements in my experience. Some of the organisations are not set up to accommodate, provide services and give a life outside of the home to young adults with severe intellectual disabilities and that is a real problem.

Rehab provides significant services in this regard and, if anything went wrong with that, as has been suggested by Rehab, this would only exacerbate the problem. These are young citizens of Ireland who are entitled to be facilitated to enable them to live their best possible lives and go on to pursue other opportunities.

See this speech in context