Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)

Last weekend I was delighted to attend a ceremony celebrating a centenary of light, 100 years of LauraLynn providing palliative care for children, celebrating beyond the establishment of LauraLynn to the legacy bodies that it worked with, the children’s Sunshine home and, indeed, Ella Webb who started treating children with rickets in 1925. Tá mé comh bhródúil. I am very proud that all this work has been done in my home constituency of Dublin Rathdown in Leopardstown. LauraLynn provides crucial work. It is the only organisation in this country providing palliative care for children. It gives children choice at the end of life and dignity and it provides families with the opportunity to create memories. LauraLynn and many other organisations in the community and voluntary sector operate on threadbare budgets despite the fact that they provide these short gaps that the State does not provide. These are crucial services up and down the country. Will the Minister commit in budget 2026 to providing multiannual funding, core funding, to finally allow us to move away from this philanthropic model of 100 years ago to a modern State which properly funds these organisations to adequately support families up and down the country?

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