Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The figures from the HSE show an extra €100,000 has been provided here and another €160,000 provided there. Those providing services to people with intellectual disabilities are telling me that they do not have adequate resources to provide the services required. I understand the challenge. It is, again, not the high-profile part of medicine. There was much more talk about disability issues in the 1990s and 2000s than there is now. I understand that as a consequence, the Minister of State might be fighting an uphill battle. The reality, however, is that the families of the people with intellectual disabilities are living with this every day of every year and can expect a lifetime of looking after a young person. Most people who end up caring for the elderly will be in that situation for a finite time. People who wind up looking after young people with a disability will be doing that for a long lifetime. That is because, thankfully, survival rates are much better nowadays.

I have been trying to table questions to the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection on the means-testing of disability allowance for those who have never had and never will have the chance to find a job. If parents leave to their children out of what they have saved in a lifetime €100,000, the Department disregards the first €50,000. If they leave them a house, it means that they are ruling their children out of receiving support from the State. That issue must be addressed also.

In summary, we need a greater proportion of the budget to be spent on primary care services. We must ensure the regions and areas on the edge of the country receive the same services as those areas at the centre. We must put a great deal more money into disability services than we have been in recent years.

See this speech in context