Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister of State a good morning and thank him for coming but, as he can imagine, I was expecting the Minister for Health. While I value the Minister of State's time I feel this issue deserves the attention of the Minister. I will ask my questions, however, because they are important. I will relay them as I would have to the Minister in order that the Minister of State will be able to take my message back in full.

Last month the Taoiseach came to Carlow. I asked him to come to have a meeting and to wish a happy birthday to Holy Angels, a very special facility for children with special needs in Carlow. I hoped he would see the need and know that it needs help. It would also allow the centre to raise its concerns. He could not come because his schedule was tight but I have serious questions to ask this Government about promises which were made and not kept. I now put these questions to the Minister of State.

The Holy Angels centre in Carlow recently celebrated its 40th birthday with a fundraising night. Families who used the service over the four decades joined in the celebrations and were more than generous, but fundraisers for this incredible facility are a regular occurrence because there is no other help for it. Our community in Carlow is amazing. It digs deeper and deeper again and again, but it is not fair. The centre has been promised capital funding and has been waiting years for it.

The Holy Angels Day Care Centre was established in the basement of Carlow's old district hospital in 1978 because there was a need for day care for children with special needs. There is still that need today but the centre is in urgent need of investment. The centre now exists as a designated specialised preschool for children aged from 18 months to six years and caters for children with a range of disabilities such as Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, autism and rare conditions such as Pierre Robin syndrome and Rett syndrome. There are 35 children in the school, which has a waiting list of 20 because it is still waiting for capital funding which was promised more than 11 years ago. An interim amount of €150,000 was given last year. That was urgent. The Minister, Deputy Harris, had to come down because the roof was leaking and the flooring was in a very bad state. As some service users use wheelchairs, all that flooring had to be taken up and new flooring put down.

From a basement to prefabricated accommodation, the staff have had to work in these conditions and they deserve better. The children deserve better, as do the parents of those children left idling on waiting lists. They were given promises and commitments but they have not received their new school. Essential maintenance work was completed but that is just not good enough. They all need a school for Holy Angels that is fit for purpose. The facility has a wonderful hydrotherapy pool for the users of the centre, from which the wider community also benefits. This 21 year old hydrotherapy pool needs to be upgraded. This facility was promised funding for a new school and pool but, again, nothing has happened.

As someone who has been on the board of Holy Angels for the last few years, I would like to say that we have been getting information from the HSE. It is telling us everything but telling us nothing at the same time. We are told there is a site. We have been told that and told it again. We are just waiting on the capital funding because the school's current location is too small to allow for extension. We need a larger site. The HSE has a site in Carlow. It is telling us that it is there. I am looking for full commitment from the Minister of State on that funding.

The second status report I seek is on the overnight accommodation for respite services for parents of children in Carlow. These services were previously provided by Holy Angels in a house in Carlow called Tír na nÓg which closed in December 2015. Arrangements for alternative respite provisions were set up in partnership with the HSE and Holy Angels and extended until a tender process for the provision of respite services in Carlow-Kilkenny was completed. Enable Ireland was the successful tenderer. Since 1 September 2017 Enable Ireland has taken over the provision of respite services to children with complex disabilities in Carlow-Kilkenny. The matter of providing overnight respite services to families in Carlow-Kilkenny has not yet been dealt with. A house, formerly a Patrician Brothers home, was purchased in Tullow and the families were promised that the renovation and setting-up of the house was to be fast-tracked and that they would see a new service later this summer. That has not happened. The house was supposed to be ideally suited to the needs, and renovations were not expected to cause any delay. When are the children going to be put in this overnight respite service that was promised? It is three years since we had overnight respite in Carlow. It is unacceptable.

The reason I brought this up today is because we spoke about people in need in respect of the budget. We have Holy Angels and a respite service in a house called Tír na nÓg in Carlow. Holy Angels is in prefabricated accommodation. This is 2018 and this has been going on for 40 years. It is unacceptable.