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

It is a chicken-and-egg situation. If younger people were getting regular respite services, they might not need residential care as quickly as they do. Quite a number of teenagers go into residential care because they have not received the supports and respite in community they need. They then require residential care. This is linked to independent living. We know people are entitled to independent living under the UNCRPD. There is a deficit in that regard. I have heard from the council that people are languishing on waiting lists and housing is not provided until the HSE says that support is in place in order to assist a person to live independently. We also hear that it is the other way around. I hope the new national strategy for housing for disabled people will address that. Certainly, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, said it would and that its publication was imminent. I asked him about that a few weeks ago. He said it would be published in a few weeks. It is to be hoped that we will see that and that it will address some of the issues.

In previous alternative budgets, Sinn Féin committed to implementing the recommendations of the disability capacity review. It is almost two years since it was published and there is still no implementation action plan. We need to see that. We also consistently call on the Government to develop a cross-departmental strategic workforce development plan to train, recruit and retain enough health and social care professionals.

The Minister, Deputy Harris, said his Department only engaged in discussions around this with the HSE or the Department of Health. The progressing disability programme was planned from 2014 onwards. It was known then that we would need staff. I remember talking to managers of what were known as child development teams before CDNTs were formed. They told me there were waiting lists. What did we think was going to happen if the structure changed? There would still be waiting lists. It took some time to put the model in place, which resulted in lengthening waiting lists.

It is time to give families a break and provide vital respite services. Our motion urges the Government to work with stakeholders, including service providers in the sector, leverage all existing capacity in the sector, support the reopening of closed respite centres and implement a multi-annual strategic workforce plan.

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