Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I welcome, as always, the Minister of State to the House and acknowledge she is well aware of this important issue. A number of issues arise from my perspective and I am not satisfied the Minister of State's office has been briefed adequately on the facts relevant to this case. I do not seek to cause an issue to arise between the Minister of State and me. She is focused on her brief and I often have praised her in this Chamber for her determination and commitment to it. In this case, I ask the Minister of State to provide a detailed statement regarding reports on the underfunding of the care of people with intellectual disabilities at Wisdom Services at Cregg House. In particular, the notes to editors accompanying her press release of last week, which indicated that services would continue, mentioned the Department did not accept there was an underfunding issue. However, the HSE publishes an annual report containing details of revenue and capital funding paid to section 38 voluntary service providers, of which Wisdom Services is an example. An analysis of all the published reports from 2005 to the present day reveals that Wisdom Services received a lower percentage increase throughout all those years when compared with comparable service providers in the sector. I do not know the reason this should have been the case and consider it to be fundamentally wrong. Moreover, an exercise conducted by the working group appointed jointly by the HSE and Wisdom Services on foot of a meeting between Oireachtas Members and the Minister of State when this issue first arose last April, revealed that HSE facilities are better funded than the services provided by Wisdom Services at Cregg House. The difference is apparent in the case of residential services, services in community homes and day services.

Wisdom Services is a section 38 health service provider, that is, a designated provider of services on behalf of the HSE and its costs are lower than those of comparable services provided directly by the HSE to persons with intellectual disabilities. I understand these facts are reflected in two reports. While I am uncertain whether the Minister of State has yet had sight of the national value for money review, I am reliably informed this is the case when compared with other section 38 voluntary agencies. It also is reflected in a report, which again I gather the Minister of State may not yet have seen, namely, the result of the collaborative process between the HSE and representatives from Wisdom Services over the past month or so, which has culminated with the announcement by the Daughters of Wisdom that they were obliged to pull out on the basis that they could not stand over the continued underfunding.

I take the Minister of State's view that the services will continue, although I have questions to ask about that shortly. Apart from that issue, I have a concern as a public representative for the people of the north west. The representatives from Wisdom Services, under the auspices of the Daughters of Wisdom, are providing a service that is more cost effective and which provides greater value for money than the HSE can provide directly in the area. In the face of present difficulties and given the scarcity of resources, everything possible should be done to ask them to stay on and to ensure their effective management is replicated elsewhere among section 38 providers, as well as in the directly-provided HSE services, rather than pursuing an agenda which I consider to be pushing them out. I believe there are agendas at play in this regard. While I do not believe it is the agenda of the Minister of State, and I acknowledge this sounds strange, I believe the Government is being used as a pawn to ensure these service providers are pushed out in order that the HSE can take control of the services. I do not believe this is in the best interests of either the clients, that is, the people who use those services and their families, or those of the State because, as I stated it is alleged that two value for money reports, the most recent of which was conducted between Wisdom Services and the HSE directly, as well as the national value for money review carried out on section 38 voluntary agencies, show Wisdom Services is providing better value for money.

The other point with which I take issue concerns the notes to editors contained in the Minister of State's press release on this issue. The Minister of State has stated-----