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

I thank the Deputy and I take on board all that he said. I welcome the fact that the Taoiseach today, on the floor of the Dáil, committed that he is meeting Family Carers Ireland within the next two weeks to discuss the full report there.

It is unfortunate that when the Deputy knocks on a door, he has the experience that people are unaware of the fabulous day-care services that are available, and where there is access to transport. The Deputy is correct that there needs to be a co-ordinated response to that.

Speaking within my own brief of where we have respite in disabilities, which was one of the key areas that was also drawn on within the report, it is having equality of access and having a co-ordinated approach to ensure that we can map out where services are being provided in order that families know when a child gets a diagnosis that there are camps available, at Christmas in winter and any time of the year, that there are equal opportunities for their little ones to be able to participate in and after-school availability, but also ensuring that by providing adequate respite, it means we prevent us from having emergency cases where family relationships break down and where we end up in crisis where families need access to emergency departments, which are not fit for purpose for a family in crisis, or where families end up not collecting a child or an adult from respite because they are absolutely worn out. I totally take that on board. That is why I am doing a complete respite plan where, it will be measured, where we will know what services are not opening even though we are funding them or what services are built and not working at full capacity. While I acknowledge we have a staffing issue and recruitment is an issue, it is not the whole problem. There has to be a cultural change and a step change to ensure, where we are spending €110 million, that those services are provided for those who are most vulnerable.

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