Maria Corrigan (Fianna Fail)

I thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter. I congratulate the Minister of State on his recent appointment and wish him every success in the future.

An issue has arisen for young people with disability who attend a range of educational facilities, some of which are special school placements and others of which are in a mainstream school setting. Ordinarily as these young people leave school in June, arrangements are put in place by the Health Service Executive to ensure funding is available to allow them to continue with their placements from the following September onwards. Obviously as leaving school and adjusting to a new setting is quite traumatic and a big step for any person, it is very important adequate preparation should take place. Appropriate training, employment or activation locations should be identified that would meet the needs of the individual young person. Ordinarily at this stage of the year such preparations would be well advanced.

I welcome that in last year's budget the Taoiseach, then Minister for Finance, allocated an additional €50 million for the provision of services for people with disabilities. When I raised the matter of the expenditure of this €50 million in a similar Adjournment debate in the Seanad a number of weeks ago, I received an assurance that every cent of that €50 million would be spent on services for people with disabilities and that part of that funding would go to those individuals who were due to leave school in June. However, some concerns have arisen and it appears that the money has not been committed. This is causing quite a degree of anxiety and uncertainty for parents. It has slowed the process of identifying appropriate settings, locations and placements for these young people from September onwards. They are not getting the opportunity to prepare for the transition and to go to view the locations they are hoping to attend from September onwards for fear that the money we have allocated in the budget for 2008 will not be committed from September.

I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could alleviate that anxiety and concern being experienced by those young people and their parents, and confirm to the Seanad that the money that was allocated in the budget will be spent to ensure these young people will be able to continue their development come September 2008 and allow us to bring an end to any anxiety being experienced. I ask the Minister of State to confirm also that the remainder of the €50 million will still be spent in the disability area and not used, as has been suggested, to offset an overspend by the HSE.