Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Bannon for raising this matter. It gives me the opportunity to clarify the position in regard to the employment of staff by the Irish Wheelchair Association. I am replying on behalf of my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children.

In the Estimates for 2006, significant additional funding totalling €100 million has been included for the improvement of health services for people with disabilities. As part of this provision, funding of €10 million has been made available to address core underfunding and core staffing issues in services provided by the non-statutory sector. The Health Service Executive has been asked to allocate this funding on an equitable basis, having regard to the needs of people with disabilities. I expect the executive's consideration of these needs will take into account any urgent case for funding of necessary services which may be made by the Irish Wheelchair Association.

In this connection, I am aware that the Irish Wheelchair Association is highly dependent on community employment schemes to provide services to people with disabilities. This means there is a regular turnover of highly experienced, well trained and committed staff when their stints on community employment schemes expire. For agencies such as the Irish Wheelchair Association which have a significant involvement in community employment schemes, there can be particular difficulties associated with the lack of eligible participants, difficulties in recruiting people of the required calibre and problems associated with training participants who must then leave the schemes after a defined period, resulting in the need on the part of the agency and service user to recruit and train all over again.

If the association is of the view that such services should be fully funded by the Health Services Executive instead, it should make this case directly to the executive. It will then be a matter for the HSE to decide on the level of priority to be given to this funding application, taking into account the advice of the regional co-ordinating committees and bearing in mind other competing demands for funding for disability services.