Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy.

I welcome this important motion on respite care services. It is good we are talking about the issue but we have to view it in both a post-pandemic and a pre-pandemic light. Respite care services are a vital cog in the system of care. In a previous life, before being elected to the House, I worked in respite services so I understand their importance for family members and service users. For the people who work in respite and other care services, it has, to say the least, been very difficult over the past two years to deal with the ongoing public health emergency.

The provision of respite care has been arbitrary for the families trying to get access, and it has been very difficult for some families who just cannot get the hours. Earlier during the pandemic, the withdrawal of day and respite services had a profound effect. It is almost incalculable what it did to service users, children, family members and staff. The services were gone completely. If a person does not have a routine, a relationship with his or her peer group, an educational space or other supports, it can have a terrible effect on family members and others. The State is still recovering in that regard, as are the services. Will the Minister of State outline what the State has done to fill that enormous void that opened over the past two years? I will always be haunted by some of the news reports about families for whom that service was simply gone. It was so distressing to hear family members say they had nothing and describe how they could now see their child regressing,

Many carers provide a vital service, not only for their children, loved ones and so forth, and that can go unnoticed at times. There should be a statutory entitlement for carers to 20 days' annual leave for the work they do. That should be put into legislation in order that carers will be given time off. That would make sense and most people would agree to it, given there would be a significant benefit-in-kind to the State whereby carers would save it vast sums by avoiding the need to have their loved one enter a hospital environment.

Will the Minister of State outline his opinion on the effects of the pandemic on day services and respite services? Where have interventions been made to fill the void that has appeared? We need more resources, not least where that void has opened over the past two and a half years.

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