Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

As we all know, throughout the country the Irish Wheelchair Association provides very valuable and important supports to their service users. These are essential supports for persons with disabilities. For more than a year, there have been limited in-person day services at the Irish Wheelchair Association centre in Cavan town. This has affected 40 service users and their families. I have spoken to these people regularly and they are most disappointed, absolutely annoyed, and understandably very frustrated that adequate in-person day services are not available to them. This is also a source of serious concern to IWA staff locally. A business case was submitted twice to the HSE for the provision of 1.5 whole-time-equivalent staff, which would resolve the issue. This is a reasonable request by any measurement. This must be resolved without further delay. Commitments were given to me and to others previously that the necessary resources would be provided. That must be honoured now after what has been a totally unacceptable delay.

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