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

The shortage of respite services for children and adults with disabilities in west Cork is having an impact on carers who have had no break in recent years since the onset of the pandemic. Carers go through hell a lot of the time. The budget has let carers down. In what world should it be acceptable that someone who works and cares for another person should be means tested? After all, these people are doing a job. Surely anyone who does a job should get paid for it.

Families are forced to watch key milestones in their children's development pass without appropriate interventions due to waiting lists. There is a lack of supports in the most distressing cases, including for children and young people moving into full-time care and on an unplanned basis. Older family members are trapped in unsustainable caring roles in the community due to the lack of investment in planned supports. Many parents are forced to provide significant support into their 70s, 80s and beyond, with no visibility or security in planning for the future of their loved ones.

In west Cork, there is a shortage of long-term residential care, especially for adults with disabilities but also in some cases for children. There are long waiting lists for children needing autism spectrum disorder, ASD, psychological services. Parents of children who have finally got into special needs schools and have finally been given funding for transport are now being told the Department cannot provide the services to take the children to school. The Department is asking the parents to take their children to school and will pay them to do so.

Ireland's disability service providers are not fully funded for the services they provide. They were not even funded for the full cost of the reversal of the pay cuts imposed under the financial emergency measures in the public interest. Those same organisations are not funded for the cost of meeting HIQA standards. They are being hit by massive increases in insurance costs. Some service providers have had to cut services or lay people off. Others have had to decide not to go ahead with new much-needed services. This means people with disabilities are forced to wait longer for basic needs.

Most of these same charitable organisations are struggling to retain staff because they cannot compete with what the HSE pays its staff to do the same work. All these organisations are funded under section 39 of the Health Act 2004 and this is at the heart of the challenge they are meeting each day. It means that even though these charities are providing the same services as the HSE, they are not funded on a level of parity.

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