Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that the Government is not opposing this motion. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has acknowledged that respite services are not receiving the support they need and rightfully deserve. These are vital services and must be funded adequately. The Minister of State must ensure all respite services are brought back, initially, to pre-pandemic levels, maintain existing capacity in the sector and prevent further closures such as those we are seeing in counties Donegal, Cork and Wexford.

The Minister of State and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, referred to alternative types of respite. I know some of this is home-based and this is to do with what suits the person requiring respite and the family involved. I was talking, however, to a family who have been given a grant. I do not know if this comes under the respite heading, but it is definitely a home support grant for that family's teenager. A grant was provided which allows the family concerned to seek a person and pay him or her. It is only possible, though, to pay a rate of €13.88 hourly and the members of that family have told me it has been impossible to find people to work for this level of pay. The HSE has given the family this grant, but they have found it impossible to get people. While the grant and the hours are appreciated, they are just not able to find people to work for this rate of pay.

The disability capacity review identified major shortages in respite services for adults and children. It notes that fewer than one in four parents caring for an adult or child with disability receives any form of respite. It also recognised that latent unmet need could be considerably higher than what is recorded and that there is a potential need for approximately 20,000 additional respite hours. The important word is "potential", because we do not know what is required.

Deputy Collins referred to what Family Carers Ireland said at today's meeting of the Joint Committee on Autism. There is no audit of our respite requirements. It asked whether it was possible to have a register where family carers could register if they required respite and provide the details of the person who requires respite care, whether an adult or child, and what his or her needs are. I am not sure if that is something that could be done. It has to be very difficult to plan a service when we do not know what the need is. That needs to be addressed.

The Minister of State referred to the fact that sometimes respite beds are lost because somebody requires emergency residential care.

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