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

Tá mé buíoch don Cheann Comhairle as ucht deis a thabhairt dom an t-ábhar seo agus an buachaill seo a lua ar urlár na Dála inniu. I am grateful to the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this urgent, emergency situation on the floor of the Dáil Chamber today. This is a story that has been reported in some media outlets today. A child has been in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda for approximately 13 days but it is not hospitalisation this child requires. The child urgently requires residential care for at least a portion of time. He also needs further support from the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and from whatever other disability services are available. I am not confident that the child has received all of the medical and associated services he requires, particularly in recent weeks. I strongly urge Deputy Finian McGrath, both in his role as Minister of State with responsibility for disability issues and in his role as Minister of State at the Department of Health, to try to bring the hospital and disability sides of the HSE together.

I have been informed that this matter has been escalated to national level within the administrative structure. I am now escalating it to the national level of the Dáil. One side needs to talk to the other. There is no complaint about the hospital but it is not the place for him and, as I understand it, he does not need to be there but there is nowhere else for him to go. When this case came to my office and the media reported on it, it turned out that other, similar cases have happened or are happening. That is frightening. Services are not there when they are needed in this particularly urgent and critical situation.

I will not say too much more because I want to leave it as general as possible. I have already discussed the matter privately with the Minister of State. I gave him some more information about it which I will not put on the floor of the Dáil but I hope the Minister of State appreciates the urgency of the matter and the officials who make decisions, under the Minister, will be able to make the right choices for this child in conjunction with his parents. The parents are waiting for services. A particular service was supposed to be discussing matters with them this morning and that fell through for some reason. I was very disappointed to hear that did not happen. Another service interviewed the family on Friday and, as I understand it, that service does not have a place at the moment. It was very disappointing that what was meant to happen this morning did not happen. I strongly urge the Minister to do something. It is really urgent.

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