Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy's question related specifically to the Owenacurra centre. It would show my ignorance if I did not understand what the Owenacurra centre is. I do understand what it is; it provides respite in respect of mental health supports. My prepared contribution relates to a totally different matter, so it would be disrespectful of me not to acknowledge the Deputy's questions about the Owenacurra site. I understand it exactly and everything he has raised. I do not have a prepared answer to hand, but I will take on board what he said and I will discuss it with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. I appreciate the local Deputies have engaged with that Minister of State, but I will convey to her what the Deputy raised. Nevertheless, I will outline my prepared answer on disability services.

I am deeply committed to the provision of respite. I have seen at first hand the benefit respite can provide to people with disabilities and their families, so I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of respite. This year, I have allocated funding to provide an additional ten respite homes, including three additional specialist centre-based services to provide 4,032 nights to 90 children, that is, one to be Prader-Willi appropriate and the other two to provide high-support respite for children and young adults with complex support needs. Sometimes, when we say I support the “development” of something, that just means we are getting the process going, and when we talk about services being provided for 90 children, that could mean four children over seven nights. It is about growing and creating that capacity.

Regarding east Cork, the Cork-Kerry community healthcare organisation, CHO, provides funding to the Cope Foundation to provide adult respite services within the east Cork area. At present, a four-bedroom respite service is operational in Fermoy and a six-bedroom respite service in Cobh is currently not in operation, unfortunately, due to staffing and recruitment issues. That is very regrettable and puts a significant strain on families. Regrettably, due to the Covid crisis, respite services throughout Cork and Kerry were severely impacted and resulted in some services ceasing operations completely or being offered in an alternative way. Cork-Kerry disability services have informed me they have actively engaged with service providers to plan for the phased resumption of services and the development of alternative models. Cork-Kerry community healthcare disability services have advised they will implement a standardised process for the management of adult respite services. The standardisation is something I discussed with the CHO when I visited Cork last summer, whereby one person might get 40 hours while someone else might get only one hour. There has to be a proper tool whereby what you get will not depend on whom you know. A person's needs have to be the basis.

More broadly within the county of Cork, a new respite service for adults is being developed by the Brothers of Charity. I have been informed the building upgrade is now complete and the service is scheduled to open in quarter 2 of 2022 in Garretstown. While it is an existing building, the four or five rooms within it will create new capacity in the area. I have been informed that 10,649 respite overnights were provided in CHO 4, which exceeded the national service plan target by about 1,000 bed nights, while 1,467 day-only respite services days were also provided. That was lower than the target, but not significantly so. The HSE has advised that where targets were not met, this was mainly due to necessary precautions to maintain physical distancing. The need for increased respite facilities for people with disabilities is now well understood, and the Department of Health and the HSE continue to work with me to explore various ways of responding to this need.

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