Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this particular question. The programme for Government, Our Shared Future, includes a commitment to advancing neurorehabilitation services in the community. In budget 2023, the Minister and I secured enough funding to put in place two community neurorehabilitation teams. Those two teams were in CHO 2 and CHO 4. The funding that was secured was in excess of €1.8 million. Not only did we secure that funding, we also secured enough funding for 28 new neurorehabilitation clinical specialists to be deployed in acute settings. We are building on the neuro strategy that was set out. The framework was done in 2019 and, to be fair to the former Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and the previous Government, they put in place funding for CHO 6 and CHO 7. However, it became apparent last year, when I sought funding for CHO 4 and CHO 2, that the funding secured for CHO 6 and CHO 7 had never been used. The reason was that not enough people were assigned to the teams. We hope that by the back end of this year, we will fund those areas.

How will it work? We will have a minimum of 12 to 15 staff to start with. They will support a range of organisations dealing with people with Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, acquired brain injury and Huntington's disease, to name but a few. There will be a multidisciplinary team, including psychology, occupational therapy and speech and language professionals. They are specialists in their fields. They will work in those community teams. As opposed to staying in the National Rehabilitation Hospital, NRH, people can be discharged and return to their communities. They will not need to go into another acute setting. We will have a community team in place. We will also have a community team to work with those various organisations, such as MS Ireland, which provide respite. That will allow patients to be supported in a bespoke way. The community team is bringing people back to the community to support them and ensure they can lead progressive and independent lives in their own communities.