John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. I thank the Senator for raising the issue and welcome the opportunity to update the House on Government policy on community services in general.

The Government is committed to supporting people to live in dignity and independence in their homes and communities for as long as possible. Where this is not feasible, the health service supports access to quality long-term residential care where this is appropriate. We are continuing to develop and improve health services in all regions and to ensure quality and patient safety.

A key element of Government policy is the provision of community services such as home help, home care packages and day care. In the Health Service Executive national service plan for 2010, approved by the Minister for Health and Children earlier this year, the HSE has undertaken to provide almost 12 million home help hours for 54,500 people, more than 5,000 home care packages for more than 9,500 people and 21,300 day care places which we estimate will cater for up to 80,000 people. Between 2006 and 2010, an additional sum of more than €200 million was provided by the Government for the HSE to increase these services to enable older people to remain at home and in their communities.

The Health Service Executive has operational responsibility for the delivery of health and social services, including those at facilities such as St. Mary's day care centre in Mullingar. The Senator will appreciate that all developments have to be addressed in the light of current economic and budgetary pressures. The Health Service Executive has been asked to make a rigorous examination of how existing funding could be reconfigured or reallocated to ensure maximum service provision is achieved. This will require a stringent ongoing review of the application of the resources available.

Unfortunately, owing to the current industrial action, the Minister did not have information to hand on the specific issue regarding St. Mary's day care centre, Mullingar.