Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of respite care, in respect of which there is a commitment in the programme for Government. It was announced with huge fanfare that an additional €10 million was being provided for respite care. There is a chronic crisis in regard to access to respite, particularly for families of persons with intellectual disabilities. Service providers are telling families that there is no respite available for 2019, and have been doing so for the past couple of months, but they have been offered a shared care service. People at a high level in the services are saying that funding for respite care is not being made available by the HSE to the regions and that the Government is at sea in terms of the crisis in this area. Attempts to access home help hours for some families have been shut down. Is the Tánaiste aware of the massive crisis around respite care services for the remainder of 2019 and that there is an even greater crisis coming down the track in this regard?

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