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

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. I am told by the HSE that a number of young persons with a disability attend both the RT programme and day services in the Beara area. An arrangement has been in place for a number of years between RehabCare and Local Link for these service users living in this area to be collected in the morning, brought to their service and brought home in the evening. This is because the geographic location is rural and there was no existing transport service in place via the National Transport Authority, NTA, at the time.

Unfortunately, the HSE has said it is not aware of any difficulties with this existing transport arrangement for these service users accessing RehabCare services. As a result, officials in the Department of Health made contact with the Department of Transport on the issue. In an update provided through the NTA rural transport programme, the TFI Local Link Cork office confirmed that the service in question is a long-standing one and is a HSE co-funded service. However, TFI Local Link Cork says it is not aware of any issues with this service. For example, no passengers are being left behind. It confirmed that nothing has changed recently and no changes are being proposed to the service by TFI Local Link.

However, I know from local media reports and the fact the Deputy is raising the matter this morning that there clearly is some form of issue, which I hope we can address in some way here. It is important for me to note that it is disappointing for me to tell the House this morning that different agencies are seemingly oblivious to the potential issue when a quick Google search shows Beara West Family Resource Centre has flagged the issues with Local Link in Bantry, while parents have also approached Local Link in the area. There has clearly been a breakdown in communication somewhere along the line, which it is to be hoped we can resolve.

I am grateful for the additional information set out by the Deputy.

To be honest, my script has changed four times in the past 24 hours because we have been trying to get input from the various agencies. We sorted it out this morning on Google. We had to go to Google to actually see what is happening in Beara. I will take this up because I do not think people in their various offices realise the impact on young people with additional needs who are trying to get to their day services or rehabilitative training. The importance of this training is that it is their next step into paid employment. If we do not have the links in place, how can we expect to support families or young people with additional needs? The whole idea of the school leaver programme is to ensure we scaffold people to know exactly where the services are, how they can get to them and how those services can be depended upon, as opposed to having people in offices telling me yesterday and today they are not aware of any issues.

See this speech in context