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

Later on, and not because we are having a Topical Issue debate this morning, I am meeting CHO 1 officials as part of my monthly meetings. I will bring up the point about the discretionary element the Deputy has raised. In the case that the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and myself are aware, the child was not on the radar whatsoever of the disability manager in that region. I will raise that in my meeting with CHO 1. Discretion is required. Children should not need a diagnosis if the CDNT knows that a family is in crisis. The circumstance for the carers has changed and the carers need support. The mother must be at the end of their tether trying to support her partner and the other children and still have a child who needs 150% support. The Deputy is correct to raise this matter. Discretion is required at all times and compassion needs to be part of it. In order for the relationship not to break down and in order for us not to have emergency cases where children end up going into full-time residential care, which is not what anybody wants, we need to support the family and the siblings. If the child is non-compatible with the other four, we need to make other arrangements. We need to be flexible and pragmatic. That is my ask of the HSE. Farming children out from one county to another is not how we do business. It is all supposed to be about closest to home, building that relationship and ensuring the children have the support in their own community. Sending a child from Cavan or Monaghan down to Westmeath is not good practice. It tells me that the CHO is under-resourced and does not have enough funding to support the children in its own area. We have a similar situation in County Meath. It is hilarious to think that all the providers in Dublin buy properties in Meath but Meath is not able to fund or support any of its own. We are changing that this year. I will look to do exactly the same with the children's services in the Cavan-Monaghan area

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