Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have a serious problem with children and adults with disabilities. Only a couple of months ago I was fighting in here to save the Kilbrittain early intervention unit in west Cork. It was fully intended to close that unit and, luckily enough, parents sat down within hours of hearing the story and I had it back before the Dáil within a couple of days. Okay, the decision was reversed, but unfortunately for the intervention unit, it faces the same problem of closure this time next year. I had to fundraise for it a number of years ago. It is an excellent unit run by the school in Kilbrittain.

There is also a lack of SNAs in west Cork. I attended a fundraiser last week and I thought it shameful that we had to attend such a fundraiser for a special needs assistant in Ballydehob. Is that what the system in our country has gone to? We cannot get the services for the young people and they must go out fundraising.

It is the same issue with the recent closure of the Castletownbere CoAction centre. Pay parity is the issue and CoAction has told me it cannot get staff. That ends up with services for people being closed. We have an entire system mired in difficulty that has been left unattended. Unfortunately, people suffer as a result.

Care workers and those who help at home, as well as others looking after people with disabilities, such as the Irish Wheelchair Association, thought they would get some respect with the €1,000 payment from the Government but many of them will not get it. Perhaps some of the home help personnel will get it.

I must raise the matter of an adult who fell last week in Bandon. I apologise to the family for not raising it before now but the entire system is failing and cracking at the seams. The lady in question fell at 2 p.m. on Monday, 21 March, and waited 14 hours for an ambulance. She had a fractured hip and broken shoulder and imagine she had to wait 14 hours for an ambulance. There is something wrong in the HSE and the system. It is creaking at the top. That lady had to wait 14 hours at her house before an ambulance attended to her at 4 a.m. That was after falling at 2 p.m. the previous day.

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