Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A previous speaker from the Fianna Fáil Party suggested that we should all put our differences aside and simply get behind our health services and the Ministers. I would like nothing more than to do that. It is very difficult, however, to just simply get behind our Minister and our health services when dealing daily, as I do and, I am sure, as other Members do, with sectoral interests, people who are at the coalface and people who are in need of services and treatment, none more so than those reliant on our disability services.

The failure of the Minister to include additional funding resources or investment provisions for disability and dementia services in the winter plan is astounding. His subsequent announcement of a meagre €10 million for disability day services and home support six months into the pandemic has been met with shock and dismay by the sector. To say it falls short of the urgent needs of the 643,133 people with disabilities in the State today is an understatement of the highest order.

Disability services, as the Minister will be aware, submitted their Covid-related costs to the HSE in June, so the Minister knows that the moneys that were announced on Monday past are just a fraction of the funding needed to deliver services. I should not have to remind the Minister of his Government's commitment under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I cannot overstate the personal toll and long-term impact of the withdrawal of care and supports for people with disabilities, their families and carers. I am calling and pleading again on the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to address the funding crisis for disability services in budget 2021 and to bring their funding resources and capital investment needs on a sustainable footing going forward.

On that note, I wish to raise this issue again with the Minister, because every time I try, unfortunately, for one reason or another, I cannot eyeball him across this Chamber, the issue of the group home for people with disabilities in Carrickmacross. This group home was accepted as a very important resource that was warranted back the early 2000s.

From that point on the families of the people who will reside in this group home had to fight tooth and nail every step of the way.

The building was finally completed in 2016 and then disgracefully and remarkably the HSE announced it had no money to run it. Every year we have been told that it will be considered for the following year's Estimates. Unfortunately, at a political level during the terms of several Ministers, the response has been to say that this is a HSE matter. I ask the Minister of State to bring this message once again to the Minister, Deputy Donnelly. This is a political issue and we need political accountability. I ask the Minister of State to ensure that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, responds to my request. He should bring together the relevant officials in his Department and in the HSE along with representatives of any other bodies involved, such as the Respond housing agency, Monaghan County Council and whoever needs to be brought around a table to resolve this issue. These are young adults with very profound physical and sensory disabilities. Their needs have been assessed and the health services have decided that they are best placed in the long term in this group home.

The group home, which is finished, is a fine building. It needs a few bits and pieces to be changed, but it is essentially ready to become operational. Unfortunately, the HSE has decided that its operation will be outsourced to a private company if it can get somebody to tender for it, which is incredibly disappointing because there was no reference to that before the building was completed.

I ask the Minister of State to ask the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to convene that round-table meeting as I have suggested, after which I will be the first to commend the Minister and get, as the Minister of State's Fianna Fáil colleague asked us to do, behind the Minister and the health services because we want the winter plan to work. Those at the coalface of the disability services need the cash, the resources and the infrastructure to do it. A key part of that infrastructure in the south Monaghan and surrounding area is the group home in Carrickmacross. I again plead with the Minister of State to ensure it becomes operational without delay.

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