Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Vee Valley Day Care Centre in Clogheen, County Tipperary, is facing a funding crisis with community employment, CE, staff finishing and its inability to hire staff from the HSE funding. The centre, which is run by Michelle Sweeney and a voluntary board with PJ English as chairman, has sought additional section 39 funding, which was refused. When I put a question to the Minister on this, the reply came back that the committee should look for voluntary contributions from the clients and for donations and fundraising. That is impossible in these times, and the Taoiseach knows they have done lots of that in the past. Now everybody is strapped for cash and this funding is necessary. I welcome the recent engagement of the HSE and the Department of Social Protection in visiting the centre to see what is going on. It is an excellent service with wonderful staff and patrons. They look forward to it so much and they love it now that it is back after Covid. There are many other day care centres that are probably in the same position. It is becoming ever more difficult to get CE participants and these people are retiring. We need the service to be protected and enhanced because it is so important to these service users and to the community.

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