Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and if his attendance in the Seanad were recorded, it would have a gold star. That also demonstrates the dire need for disability services in this country and the demands for them. I thank Senator Boyhan for raising the issue so we are allowed to discuss it today.

Patients with spinal and brain injuries are waiting for life-changing treatments and are being left in limbo because of the National Rehabilitation Hospital's not operating at full capacity. The Minister of State has cited the complex needs that have come about through new discoveries in medicine and rehabilitation therapy, which creates challenges for the hospital, leaving a reason to decrease the number of beds. There is also basically a lack of finance and resources being pumped into the hospital. The closure of 12 beds is horrendous for the individuals and families waiting for treatment. We know early intervention allows a person to be rehabilitated, meaning patients could achieve 80% of function, for example.

I refer to the group that has been set up because of the frustration and lack of resources and timely intervention. It is "We Need Our Heads Examined", and the Minister of State met its representatives. One of our councillors, Ms Natalie Treacy, acted on its behalf, and her mam had a brain injury after a fall. She was told if there was immediate treatment, 80% of her mam's function would return. She is a wife, a mam, a worker, a grandmother. She waited two years, from June 2015 to this week, to commence her treatment, which is completely unacceptable. The woman will now only get 20% of her function back, and that goes for so many of our needy patients throughout the country.

I am "Dubcentric" I suppose but as there are only 100 or so beds that are only available in Dublin is detrimental to the rest of the country. People have to access those beds from Donegal, Kerry and the far west and are at much more of a disadvantage than the Dubs, who find it difficult enough to access this. An additional four beds are welcome but again it is a piecemeal approach and pretty miserly, considering our need. We probably have the least number of interventions and smallest capacity in Europe but there was a promise in 2008 of building a state-of-the-art facility that would have been the largest and most effective in Europe for rehabilitation purposes. That has not come to fruition. We need to prioritise our health needs and get people back to full function as soon as possible, allowing them to continue within families and communities.

The emphasis will be on the community model and I applaud the Minister of State on that, as it is the way to go. Given what we have had in mental health services with A Vision for Change and the closure of hospitals, with nothing in place in the community, I am slightly cynical. I hope the Minister of State will not rob from hospitals to give to the communities but just give to the communities. The service in its entirety is required in both inpatient and community-based facilities for our people. I wish the Minister of State well and thank him for coming in. I thank Senator Boyhan for raising the issue; he will raise it again and again until either he is dead or we resolve it.