Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas le mo chomhghleacaithe a chuir síos an rún seo. There is no doubt that carers and families have been failed right across the State and failed far too often. I commend the fact that Deputy Cullinane has tabled this motion today. These parents and children often find it difficult to have their voices heard. Respite services are not a luxury. They are a necessity. As was said earlier, this is what families need in order to attend a funeral or a family wedding, or simply to have that break to be able to recharge so they can provide that vital care for their loved one in their home for the rest of the week or month. That type of respite support prevents out-of-home and full-time residential placements that would otherwise be required.

These families are being failed over and over again. In so many metrics it is very clear that the Government is failing. It is failing on assessments of need, on the delivery of services and on the issue of respite care. There is a growing unmet need right across this State when it comes to respite care. Fewer people received respite services last year compared to 2018. It is nearly 20% less. This unmet need is a failure of the Government to support carers and families.

It is happening in my constituency of Donegal. I have been in contact with a mother who has a number of children who are waiting for respite services in Drumboe Respite House in Stranorlar. She has three children who should have access to the respite service there but those three children, for three years, have not been able to get that respite service in that centre. Why? It is because it is closed now for that type of service. We had assurances from the Ministers of State two years ago that this recommencement was in hand. I was recently told that Drumboe Respite House will not be reopened for respite services until the end of the year. The seven-day respite service in Seaview House in Mountcharles is still not being delivered. I raised this issue with the Minister of State two years ago and again was told that expanding this service to seven days a week was a priority. Two years later, Seaview House is still not operating on a seven-day service. It alternates between a five-day service one week, a four-day service the other week and never on the weekends. It is not good enough. Families are being failed over and over again. This needs to come to an end.

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