Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I warmly welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to the Seanad. I am raising the issue of St. John of God Community Services in response to a letter I received from Councillor Paddy McQuillan in Louth County Council. He is involved with the service and is a local representative. He circulated to me a letter he received from the chief executive, as did all of the staff and their colleagues, a copy of which I have passed to the Minister of State, dated 30 September 2020.

The substance of this correspondence is that the St. John of God Community Services is to end its involvement in disability and mental health services and transfer all of that responsibility to the HSE. St. John of God services stated that the reason this is happening is because there is an issue with funding. There is a funding crisis that cannot be sustained, in its view. Services have been subsidised by it from other resources, both its personal resources and those of the order which were never collected or intended to be used to subsidise the community services they operate.

As we know, St. John of God provides services for more than 8,000 children, adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities across Dublin, Kildare, Kerry, Wicklow, Meath and Louth. It employs 3,000 staff and has volunteers in excess of that number. It has 300 locations. More than 2,500 people in receipt of day, residential and respite services will be affected. This is really critical.The order has told me that there is a €27 million annual funding gap and an accumulated deficit of €27.7 million. These are staggering figures. I have spoken to the chief executive of St. John of God Community Services yesterday, Claire Dempsey. I updated myself. I was convinced by my short conversation that there was a genuine willingness on the part of the organisation and the brothers to engage with the Minister of State and the HSE to get a resolution. The Hospitaller Order of St. John of God has a strong track record while having diminishing religious vocations. The order has a rich legacy that has served the State exceptionally well in a wide variety of supports and services.

My concern is firstly for the clients and service users. I am also concerned for the employees who work in these services throughout the country as well as their families and the families of the service users. This is critical.

Funding is an issue and it has to be resolved. It is not a question of a blame game with the HSE versus the Department of Health versus the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God. It is simply that there has to be a sustainable agreement to ensure these services are provided.

There is also an impact because we know the Government policy with regard to congregated settings and breaking up large institutions. We have had enough talk about institutions in recent days to keep us going for years. There are new models and policies of care but they do not come cheap.

There are difficulties and they need to be bridged. I appeal to the Minister of State for her response. People really need to know what is going on, whether we can get these talks back on track and whether we can get an arrangement whereby St. John of God Community Services will consider options with the Minister of State in a constructive way on how to fund these essential services. This is not for the order, the Minister of State or the HSE but for the people who avail of these important care services.