Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the ongoing crisis in the allocation and provision of respite care services, particularly for children and adults with a disability. As the Taoiseach will be aware, this is an area that has effectively been in a deep crisis since the national disability strategy was launched in 2004. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Rabbitte, who I commend on her compassion and her strong commitment to improving this service, has accepted that further progress on addressing the deficit in services is needed. The situation has not been helped in the last few years with the transfer of functions in this area from the Department of Health to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, in addition to the chaos that Covid-19 brought about with the closure of residential day care services.

There is a lack of cohesion and an inability to pin down precisely where the responsibility for respite care actually lies. This is compounded by the issue of transport services for adults and children with a disability. A family is allocated a respite place only to find out that there is no transport, or they have transport and then find out that there is no respite bed. I am aware that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, recently announced funding for the upgrading and improvement of the transport options for HSE-funded disability organisations and that is welcome. However, what good is that if there are no residential or respite services for people to be transported to?

Last week, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O’Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, issued a statement on the impact of the war in Ukraine on persons with disabilities, saying: "Ireland will not leave people with disabilities behind as we respond to the crisis". Leaving no disabled person behind is exactly the type of ambition we need. That said, there are many families who will have heard or read that statement and questioned, not the will, but the capacity of the State to deliver on that promise.

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