Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming in. We have talked about some of the cases over the last few months and she has been very helpful. I want to put that on the record.

The Minister of State will be well aware that in all counties the parents of children or young adults with challenging behaviour, intellectual disabilities do their best right through their life as long as they can. There are daycare services where this is done, which I recognise, and there is respite but there is one instance that I have discussed with the Minister of State. People get older, obviously, and the other person may lose their health. There can be a worry about making sure that their loved one is looked after. This happens right around the country; it is not "my back door" stuff.

Unfortunately, there has been an issue in the past six or eight months. I compliment the Minister of State, because any time I have gone to her she has tried to help me, and also John Fitzmaurice in the HSE. We get a reply back from one service provider in particular, Ability West, that it does not have the funding to do something. Then you go to John Fitzmaurice and try to beat him up about funding and, in fairness, funding would be made available, but then you get something back that says that the patient will have to be assessed. The Minister of State will be aware that in the case that I am on about, among others we have talked about, when someone unfortunately passes on in one of those residential places, they then have to assess the person. For whatever reason, the person will offer every excuse and they do not have staff etc. and parents are left in limbo. It is regrettable.

We need a sea change in how we are doing this. In rural Ireland it is not the solution to send someone from Glinsk to Galway city or 50 or 60 miles away. Their parents may be getting old and they love to see that person. They have saved the State a fortune over the years because many of these people are incontinent and non-verbal. Their families have done everything possible right throughout their lives and it breaks their hearts to let go but for the betterment of those young and middle aged people or older adults, they do this to make sure they have a secure future when their loved one is moving on or in bad health. Great people set up a lot of the foundations down through the years with voluntary groups collecting money and all of that but something has changed in the last six months to a year where there are now a lot of refusals. In every county in Ireland there are children with challenging behaviours and disabilities and we need to make sure that we plan for the future to accommodate those as citizens of this country as much as possible. Close to me at home in Creggs, and the Minister of State has been down there, I hope a proposal will soon go in about trying to do that very thing of bringing the services closer to the areas where they are required. I hope Ger Dowd will soon send something in to the Minister of State and to John Fitzmaurice and that that can be looked at and assessed, and they would work with the community on that into the future. It is very frustrating. The Minister of State will have seen the case when we were told that someone was going to the family to assess the person. They did not come out for a week after that. The language they use is mesmerising. Those people need help. I ask the Minister of State to try to resolve that case especially. I thank her for everything up until now.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Without getting into specifics I know exactly case that the Deputy is talking about. I cannot imagine what it is like for that mum needing that assistance or for any mother or father as they age who needs that assistance to ensure that before their time comes they have catered for their loved one. There is a huge amount of unmet need out there and a huge amount of emergency residential places required which means there is no capacity building whatever for the planned phase of support. To be fair to John Fitzmaurice and his team last year, they assisted in 28 planned residential spaces in county Galway. Galway has 458 people availing of residential spaces. That is the guts of 120 houses. That does not mean that providers cannot be empathetic or understanding and that they cannot reorganise and be a bit more agile because there is a willingness there and funding available within the HSE to make things happen.

At no stage should a person be left abandoned and unsupported or a family feel it is abandoned and unsupported. That totally goes against the ethos of this Government and it certainly goes against the ethos of how I aspire to try to support families. That is why over the past three years, I have always ensured there was enough funding there so that we could start chipping into that unmet need. I hope over the coming months, as we prepare for the budget, that the unmet need and capacity building that is so badly required will support people like John Fitzmaurice and all his colleagues in the HSE. We have funding there and we must also work in partnership with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to ensure there is housing coming on stream and that at the same time the revenue pool is there to support the families who have parents over 70, 80 and 90 so that they can have proper transitional support and at the same time ensure that when an emergency case presents, and a family’s back is to the wall, the funding should be the last issue. It should be the resource to ensure that the staff and the bed is available and that a person can be cared for as close to their home as possible. We talk about new directions. New directions is about ensuring that people are as close to home as possible and feel supported in the community where they are known and minded. I look forward to the proposal that Ger Dowd and his colleague, Kieran, will send in to me.

To return to the matter the Deputy has raised, it is unfortunate that over the past 12 months, many people have come forward who have been seeking residential spaces. They do not feel they have been supported or that the capacity has been created to meet their needs. Sometimes, where they are already availing of five-day services, they need an extra two days to ensure that a full service is made available to them. That is one of the issues that John Fitzmaurice is very clear about. To be honest, it does not sit well with the disability manager either, that we have to go to private providers when there are well-established service providers who have staff, a skillset and who also know the various people who are in need. They know their needs and their wants. They know their abilities and how to mind them.

I will continue to work with the Deputy on that case and, to be fair to the head of disability, so will he. That case is an incredibly harsh one. It is unfortunate that Deputy Fitzmaurice has been raising this for the last four months and that family still has no positive resolution.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I welcome everything the Minister of State has said. To be honest, the system is broken. If the system were not broken, I would not have to address the Minister of State here tonight and raise the issue on the floor of the Dáil. Unfortunately, as I outlined earlier, it is sad to think - this is no disrespect to any other county - that someone who may be in County Galway has to go looking in some other county to be facilitated. While it is welcome and while I am not saying we are against it, it is sad to think that this is a matter of where you come from or close to where you come from. No one is looking for “my back door” stuff. What needs to be understood is that it is a last resort when someone puts up their hand. It may be parents who are looking for the help of full-time care. They will have tried everything in their power and they will have worked as hard as they can. They will have done everything they can to make sure they will make a good life for their loved one. It is a matter of trying to think of the future and making sure they will have a future of security above all and that they are looked after properly for the rest of their life. As I said, this goes for every county in the country. I am not talking about “my back door” stuff.

I want to also put on the record of the House for anyone who is watching that John Fitzmaurice has the same name as me but he is nothing to me. In fairness to him, we have spoken to him. My staff have spoken to him on numerous occasions, and he has helped us in cases. I hope this case can be resolved because it is urgent, but there are other cases as well.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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That is right.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I do not want to come in here and pick up one issue at a time. If we solve the overall issue, it will be a job well done. I think the Minister of State for her help in it all.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I want to recognise the hurt and upset it causes families when they reach that stage where they are no longer in a position to care for their most precious. They reach out for help, and they really need it. Yet, they do not find that that help is being provided. We have to work. The system is not working. There is an unmet need. There are two parts needed to make it work. It is my job to ensure there is enough revenue in place to ensure we can move away from just emergency and building capacity towards the unmet need. That will come with the launch of the disability action plan. On the other side, I need the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, as well as the local authorities to think at all times about individuals with disabilities so we ring-fence and hold properties for them.

I will share an initiative I have worked on in the county, namely, the Living My Life project, which is a residential pilot project for Galway city and county. It is organised between the Brothers of Charity and Ability West. I have ring-fenced funding for a five-year project and I am trying to trial it in Galway where my eyes can be on it, no more than Deputy Fitzmaurice’s eyes will be on it. This is for young people who are able to live independent lives to support them into employment and into education. At the same time, they will have the watchful, useful eyes of their parents who will be assisting them.

This is to build a residential space for them in their own community so that it never becomes an expensive emergency package. The project is getting in at the bottom and at the start in order to phase them into the community. I would like to tell the Deputy that the 32 spaces have been filled. However, I am 18 months into the project and it has taken me 18 months to get two social workers. I would therefore like to see a little bit more progress and force behind it. This is a model that I believe can work so we can prevent expensive emergency residential projects at the end. It also will ensure that when an emergency arises, that it will be prioritised because we will have addressed the unmet need along the way.