Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleagues in expressing my sincere sympathy to the people of Manchester on the terrible happening last evening.Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

I wish to raise the issue of children's hospice care. This week is Children's Hospice Week so it is fitting that we should address the issues of funding and planning for children's hospice care in this country. I pay tribute to the hospice services throughout the country which do great work providing much-needed care for people who are very ill and much-needed support for their families. It is particularly sad to see children in need of hospice care. This week the LauraLynn children's hospice said there are an estimated 506 sick children in this country in need of hospice care who do not have access to it. That is a very sad statistic. It is estimated that at any given time in this country, 3,800 children with life-threatening conditions are in need of hospice care. Of that figure, an estimated 700 are in need of immediate hospice care.

There are two issues that must be addressed. The first is funding. Funding currently provided by the HSE only allows the LauraLynn facility to cater for 150 sick children. The facility can cater for approximately 200 children. There is also the issue of sick children in rural Ireland and how they are to get care. I ask the Leader to bring this matter to the attention of the Minister as a matter of urgency. The one luxury these sick children do not have is time.