Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, I am happy to provide an update to this House on the status of the Holy Angels Day Care Centre and its respite service in Carlow. As the Senator may be aware Holy Angels is a designated, specialised preschool for children aged 18 months to six years who have special needs and caters for children with a range of disabilities such as Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, autism and rarer conditions. Facilities include a hydrotherapy unit, a soft play area, a multisensory room, an outdoor play area, a family room and three classrooms. Holy Angels Day Care Centre is funded by the HSE and almost €580,000 has been allocated for 2018.

Efforts have been ongoing in recent years to secure a new school building. One of the issues that management at the school faced was trying to secure an adequate site for the new school building. This hurdle has now been overcome as the HSE has said that it will make land available at Kelvin Grove for the new school. In the interim, major renovations and a general revamp have been carried out in recent weeks on the Holy Angels building at Strawhall Estate. This included floor replacement and repairs to the roofs of the prefabricated units. The children's toilet has been moved to a different location and new fire doors have been installed.

Historically, respite care was provided by Holy Angels in Carlow and by St. Patrick's Centre in Kilkenny. However, following inspection by HIQA, both of these centres fell short of the necessary standards. The HSE carried out a mapping exercise of the need regarding children's respite for Carlow and Kilkenny and concluded that a single service provider should provide respite services to children in the Carlow-Kilkenny area. Following a tender process Enable Ireland was named as the successful service provider to provide respite care services for children with disability and complex care needs including autism spectrum disorder in the Carlow-Kilkenny area.Enable Ireland has taken on the responsibility of children's respite services in the Carlow-Kilkenny area from September 2017. The matter of providing overnight respite services to families in Carlow-Kilkenny is of key importance to the HSE and Enable Ireland. A property has been identified to provide overnight respite and the process of purchasing this property is under way. Once the purchase is complete, the property will be refurbished in line with Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, standards in order that it is an appropriate setting to deliver overnight respite services to children. Until this property is available, Enable Ireland will work with the children and their families from the Carlow-Kilkenny area in order that it can continue to offer alternative respite supports to these families.