Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this issue and I welcome Mr. Baker to the Public Gallery.

One of the key aims of the Government is to provide services and supports for people with disabilities. The aim is to empower them to live their own lives, as the Senator rightly put it, and provide them with greater independence so that they can access services, choose to live their lives how they want to and tailor the supports required to meet their needs and plan their lives. This commitment is outlined in the programme for a partnership Government, which is guided by two principles, namely, equality of opportunity and improving the quality of life of people with disabilities. This is obviously where we want and aim to be. We are a long way off but we must start somewhere.Underlining this Government's commitment to the disability sector, my colleague, the Minister of State with special responsibility for disability issues, Deputy Finian McGrath, recently announced additional funding of €31 million for disability services, including services for people with autism, bringing the total allocation for disability services this year to €1.59 billion. The Estimates were only voted on last week, so we are still waiting to see where that funding will go.

Mr. Baker has a lengthy history of engagement with both child and adolescent and adult mental health services and the Senator might disagree but I have been informed that he has received extensive input and support from the wider multidisciplinary team, which includes home care support, community mental health nurse input, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and social work services. In addition, Mr. Baker has been funded through the disability services for attendance on an outreach basis with the provider Gheel Autism Services, which provides a varied range of services, including day and residential services. He has also been admitted to the north Dublin mental health services acute psychiatric unit, among various things that have happened.

As Senator Ó Ríordáin has pointed out, it is the view of the clinicians involved in Mr. Baker's care that a placement with a private residential care provider, Nua Health Care services, Fethard, County Tipperary, is best placed to meet his needs. The HSE has been in ongoing communications with the family in regard to the funding arrangement for a private placement for Mr Baker. While resources are not infinite in terms of the expenditure incurred in the provision of private placements, all cases are considered on an individual basis and prioritised based on overall clinical need and available financial resources. As Senator Ó Ríordáin has pointed out, all the clinicians have established that the need is there but the finance is still a problem.

Dublin north city and county community health organisation is working proactively with HSE national mental health services to identify the funding arrangements required for this placement and will continue to keep the family informed. I stress that the idea is that we all live in a world where everybody has equal opportunity and should be able to avail of the services we need, irrespective of how much it costs. The Senator has hit the nail on the head: to be crude, it would probably cost much less for Mr. Baker to be in the service he needs to be in, given the amount being spent on where he is now, but the problem is with the fluidity of the funding we have within the Department of Health. There is no fluidity of funding between the different sections within the Department and that is something that needs a great deal of work. It requires a ten-year plan and is something we have started to put in place.

In the interim, I would be happy to meet with Senator Ó Ríordáin and to raise this issue with my colleague, the Minister of State with special responsibility for disability issues, Deputy McGrath. That funding was only voted through in the Estimates last week and it will take time to see where exactly it is going to go but if we can source funding somehow, I will certainly help in whatever way I can.