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

I welcome this motion from the Independent Group. It gives us the opportunity to debate what is a very important issue for many people who have ill loved ones in their homes.

I do not believe the Government or the HSE puts any value on respite services. Respite helps families to keep ill loved ones in their homes for many years, if their loved ones can get a couple of weeks of respite during the year in their local community hospitals. Sadly, this was not available during the Covid-19 pandemic for many people as the service was discontinued or scaled down. I did not agree with this as it put severe pressure on families who were already struggling. It had the opposite effect as it meant that the elderly people had to give up caring for their loved ones at home and the ill person ended up in long-term care.

Local GPs in west Cork were asking me to help get respite care for patients in certain hospitals and in nursing homes in west Cork over the past two years and even up to now. In many of the main hospitals in west Cork, it was extremely limited. Respite for children and adults with disabilities is deplorable. Parents are not getting any breaks. Respite care is not the only crisis we have in west Cork, as long-term residential places for adolescents and adults are almost impossible to access. CoAction West Cork has closed five respite houses in Castletownbere due to staffing and pay parity issues. This Government turns a blind eye to that. When the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who legged it out of the Dáil just before we spoke, decided to carry out a hush-hush Fianna Fáil nod-and-wink visit to west Cork as a Minister of State of this country, I wish she had contacted me so we could have visited the people who are really affected by these closures in Castletownbere and met the families who have very ill loved ones at home and cannot get respite care in hospitals in west Cork. Then she would have had the real picture of what is happening in the real world.

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