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

I thank the Deputy for tabling this Topical Issue matter this evening and giving me the opportunity to discuss it on the floor of the Dáil. He quite rightly outlined that he has raised this specific case with me over the last 12 months. Not only that but he and his colleagues in Cavan-Monaghan have continuously raised the issue of the lack of respite services in County Monaghan and the fact that children have to leave the county and share the service on a week on, week off basis with the neighbouring county, with adults one week and children another week.

My script does not reflect what the Deputy has outlined. When the matter was tabled it referred to children's services and the officials automatically assumed that meant everything to do with children's disability network teams, CDNTs. There is no word of respite in the statement I have. I can answer the Deputy's question, however, because I understand it and have been involved in the matter, which relates to the lack of services in an area where children have to leave and share services on a week on, week off basis. I have raised that with disability services. The way community healthcare organisation, CHO, 1 is divvied out, we have Donegal, Sligo-Leitrim and Cavan-Monaghan. That is how the area has always been looked at. It has never been looked at on a county-by-county basis or within the old catchment areas. The Deputy quite rightly said that children have to leave the county and that there are not sufficient or adequate services for them.

The Deputy's first and very clear question was what money I have in the purse. I have enough money in the purse to fund a seven over seven, which is a four- or five-bedroom house that can accommodate four or five children and is compatible, on a seven-night basis, for staffing. It would not be fair for me to indicate the amount of funding I have but it is enough to do that. That equates to approximately 75 children who can be facilitated. I said yesterday on a radio show that the way this needs to be done is through two front doors - a front door for children who have a mild to moderate disability, are compatible and can be with each other. Children who have sensory needs cannot share that space. We do not want a scenario where the service does not function for everybody else. That is where the second front door can operate. I have seen the two front door model used successfully and continuously in Council Clare, for example.

Edel has made a submission to the national office that it go through HSE estates. I am reluctant to deal with HSE estates, to be honest, because the process takes so long. If there was a section 39 provider already providing services in the area, it would be the ideal candidate to say it is able to provide or open to providing the service. It could purchase a property quicker than going through HSE estates. I am not being alarmist, but that process can take four years.

If you purchase a particular house through a section 39 organisation, it can be operationalised very quickly because it will recruit the staff. It is also important to say that there is not an embargo on staffing in disability services. We are slow at the moment in getting that message out there, but there is not an embargo. There is funding available for the Deputy's county. That has been totally laid bare. I wrote down the names of all the people I have met at this stage. I have met Senators Diarmuid Wilson, Robbie Gallagher and Joe O'Reilly, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, and Deputies Matt Carthy, Niamh Smyth and Brendan Smith. I have met every one of them, and every one of them outlined the need for it, so this is not wasted. As for the lady I met in my office, I can only but apologise for the fact that she is only getting what I would call introductory hours. The reason we use that sort of language is that if a child does not transition comfortably, then they might not want or be able to put their head on a pillow at night. It is unfortunate that it has taken six months for that to progress, to be honest.

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