Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Since I raised respite care as a Commencement matter today, several more families have contacted me. They are looking after their sons and daughters at home, providing care and are not able to access respite care. I am very concerned by the lack of planning in this matter. Several facilities are no longer available because of regulations and inspections carried out by the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, which is trying to make sure there are very high standards. Several residential units that were available are not available now. Several units, which had permanent residents from Monday to Friday and were used for respite care at weekends, are no longer available. There seems to have been no long-term planning on how to deal with the issue. As a result, approximately 18,000 people are being looked after by their parents at home. To be fair to these people, we should give them the support they deserve.

I spoke to one woman recently who told me that when her son goes into respite care she sleeps for a full two days because that is her break from having to manage and care for him 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We need to deal with this issue. Will the Leader ask the Minister to come to the House to deal with this issue and find out the plans of each Health Service Executive, HSE, unit around the country and when they intend bringing forward improvements and making additional facilities available?