Results 1-20 of 8,131 for speaker:Anne Rabbitte

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: One of the central principles and opportunities relating to the transfer of functions was to ensure a legally and operationally robust governance framework that provides for the appropriate budgetary and performance management of the specialist disability services delivered by or on behalf of the HSE. The legislative framework in place since the commencement of the Health (Miscellaneous...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank the Deputy. She hit on several key elements but the core one she speaks about is the recruitment and retention crisis that our health and social care professionals and providers are facing. While I hear what the Deputy is saying about recruitment and retention in section 39 organisations, I do not believe the issue is unique to them; it arises right across the board. The section 38...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Homes (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: A nursing home can be an appropriate care option where the person concerned has a clinically assessed complex medical and social care requirement that cannot be supported in the person’s home. However, as identified in the Ombudsman's report, Wasted Lives, for some people under the age of 65 nursing homes are not an appropriate placement and alternative, more suitable supported-living...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Homes (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: I have put funding in place to ensure the HSE is able to recruit to that steering committee, and put staff and a pathway in place to start engaging with people who are inappropriately accommodated. To date, it has engaged with 412 individuals. As recently as last Thursday I was in County Longford, where I met three individuals who have moved into their own home, thank God. Three is so few...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Homes (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: With the support of the Minister over the past number of years, I have built on the budget for PA hours. We cannot conflate what home support and PA hours are. They are two separate things. PA is the arms and legs of an individual to ensure that he or she has the right to participate in his or her community. I recently held a meeting where Ms Shelly Gaynor was my speaker on this matter,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank the Deputy. There is work to be done with our providers, by whom I mean the Department of Education and Bus Éireann, and in special education, not only on awareness but also on understanding. There should be understanding and awareness of what it is to be an autistic child, what it is to be the parent of an autistic child and how they need to be supported. They are no...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: I agree, and it is all about understanding. This is why I set up the autism innovation strategy. I genuinely believe there are low-hanging fruit for which we do not need legislation. There is work that can be done on innovation and empowerment. We can empower teachers. While we are speaking in this respect, we can also empower bus operators, bus providers and SENOs to support families in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: As the Deputy spoke, he crossed a number of Departments. I am delighted to share with him that the Minister met with the Minister for Social Protection just before Christmas and is due to meet her again in the coming weeks. I chaired the transport group relating to disability. I hope to see some positive moves with regard to that. I am a firm believer in the mobility allowance, which was...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: A range of services and supports are available to support autistic individuals and their families. These fall within the remit of multiple Departments such as the Department of Health, the Department of Education and my own Department in the context of specialist community-based disability services and the access and inclusion model. Disability services are provided throughout the country...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disabilities Assessments (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: I totally understand what the Deputy is saying. When the court judgment came in March 2022, PTAs were stood down completely. They stopped. That was a decision that we made at that stage within the Department of Health. We did not challenge it. We reverted back to the original assessment of need process. The PTAs no longer exist. They had been in operation from January 2020 to when they...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disabilities Assessments (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: I completely agree. In actual fact, I said the first day I became a Minister of State that we do not need 100% of a workforce but 140%, in order to ensure people can go on maternity leave. I agree with the Deputy on that. The HSE is back-filling. Funding was provided to ensure managers of the CDNTs could be back-filled. It is also very important for the HSE to implement its own policy,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: The Cost of Disability in Ireland report was commissioned by the Minister for Social Protection and prepared by Indecon International Research Economists. It was published in December 2021. It provides important evidence of the additional costs that people with a disability face. The report has implications for many areas of public policy. A whole-of-government approach is required to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: While I would love to give the Deputy a kite-flying answer, I cannot do that here tonight.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: I am not adding to it; I can tell the Deputy that much for nothing. However, I will say one thing. The most cost-effective way of supporting people with disabilities is to work with them to get people back into the workforce. That is one of the most important ways we can do it. One of the things the Minister did when dealing with the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disabilities Assessments (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: Children with complex special needs access therapy services through the children’s disability network teams, CDNTs. These services can be accessed through the assessment of needs, AON, process but children do not require an assessment of need under the Disability Act to access health services. The Government and the HSE both acknowledge the challenges in meeting the demand for these...

Respite Care Services: Motion [Private Members] (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: That is the answer for Stranorlar. There are four beds there.

Respite Care Services: Motion [Private Members] (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: Right.

Respite Care Services: Motion [Private Members] (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: Yes.

Respite Care Services: Motion [Private Members] (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank the Deputies for raising this important motion. I am happy to have the opportunity to discuss the issue of respite services with them this evening. As my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has already stated, the Government is not opposing this motion on the grounds that we share a desire to see increased respite services for people with disabilities and the loved ones...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (30 May 2023)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As part of the progressing disability services, PDS, roadmap process, I will be meeting with Mr. Bernard Gloster tomorrow and recruitment and retention will be addressed. I refer as well to increasing the attractiveness of recruitment into those various clinician posts, examining how we can put apprenticeship models in place and how we can attract...