Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am calling for the immediate resumption of day car services for people with intellectual disabilities. It is imperative at this stage. People with intellectual disabilities and their carers are at their wits' end and feel they have been forgotten. The totality of care for adults with intellectual disabilities has been left with parents, who are often aged. They have received little or no support for more than four months now. I have heard reports of adult children suffering from depression and loneliness and some have regressed quite significantly. Some are actually violent and it is totally born out of frustration and lack of routine.

Carers are suffering too and I have huge concerns about their mental health. It is something we are going to have to look at in the future. We are talking about parents having to dress, wash, change and feed adults in many cases. They have received nothing extra despite the additional costs, such as extra food, heating or incontinence wear. They have had to provide and pay for everything in the meantime.

Carers save the State billions of euro every year and at the moment they are very much feeling undervalued and worthless. They are receiving no respite and are often working perhaps 18 to 20 hours per day.

Many parents are wondering what has happened to the budget that is allocated for the care of their loved ones because it is not being spent on them at the moment. It has been allocated for their needs and yet they are unsure how or where it is being spent. As such a plan and a roadmap is needed for the reopening of day care centres as soon as possible.

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