Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Adjournment debate. I have advocated for a long time that placements should be offered to school leavers who have intellectual disabilities in June of the year in which they leave school, so that their parents will know where they are going. Over umpteen years, I have spoken each September to parents who still do not know where their children will go. This can be detrimental to families because it prevents them from planning ahead. Some parents are worried that they will not be in a position to stay in employment if they do not have a suitable placement for their children. As I have been advocating on this issue since I became a Member of the Seanad, I was delighted to receive notification earlier this year that the HSE had put a target date of 30 June in place. I welcomed the proposal that by the time young people leave school on 30 June each year, they and their families will know exactly where they are going in September. I understood that a centralised system, implemented by the HSE, would be put in place to ensure a more streamlined approach to assigning placements is taken and that additional funding of €7 million had been allocated. I was really looking forward to 30 June coming around this year. I was hoping that any young person I know who is in the care of special services, or who will need special services when he or she leaves school, would be placed by then. Therefore, I was disappointed last week to speak with more parents who do not know where their children will be going even though we are in the second week of July. This is a huge time for these children. When a child leaves a mainstream school, he or she has a fairly good idea where he or she is going, or would like to go, in September. The amount of future planning involving other people that is required when somebody is leaving a mainstream school is not half the amount of planning that is involved in the case of someone with an intellectual disability.

I would like to refer to the case of a young lady who has reached school leaver age and has left school. Her parents, whom I know personally, have toured this country to look for a suitable place for their daughter, who has very significant individualised needs. Nobody knows a child better than his or her mother. This child's mother went around the country to search for a suitable facility and eventually found one not too far from her home. She decided she would like her daughter to be placed in this facility and submitted an application to that effect. She notified me of the outcome last week.

I am getting two different stories or scenarios. I am not sure what is happening. I am asking for this child to be placed in the facility where her mother would like her to be placed. The mother has written to me to say the place she has checked out has the ultimate in specialised care provision. It is where she wants her daughter to go. The young woman in question has a friend, with whom she has grown up since the age of five, who will be going to the same place. It is important for people to be able to send their children to mainstream schools with their friends. This lady would like to think her child will have the company of her friend who lives across the border in the next county. They want to continue to have that arrangement in place. I have contacted both places, but I am not sure what the answer or the exact situation is. It seems to be going around the world for sport. Meanwhile, a young woman and her family are suffering as they wait to see where she will be able to go. I ask the Minister of State to look into this matter. We need to follow through on our promise that all children would know where they were going by 30 June. We are now into the middle of July. If we could get a definite statement on where this young woman will be able to go, I would appreciate it.