Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I, too, would like to speak about next week’s budget. There are many worthy asks that will affect every family and household in the country. I have spoken about those in the past and I hope to do so again during the week.

I will raise a couple of specific cases. This morning, the Neurological Alliance of Ireland, NAI, held a briefing across the road. We have spoken in this House before, I think it was on a Private Members’ Bill, about the worthy asks the alliance has, including the appointment of 20 additional nurse specialists across adult neurology and to fully resource at least four of the seven community neurorehabilitation teams that are required.

The Minister of State with responsibility for disability, Deputy Rabbitte, is working actively regarding these issues and is pursuing these issues with the Minister for Health and within the Government. Neurology waiting lists now stand at over 24,000, which is a 20% increase over five years. This is a real issue for those families and individuals who are impacted. Only one fifth of people with Parkinson's disease have access to a nurse specialist and Ireland has less than half the number of recommended specialist nurses for people with multiple sclerosis. Those are worthy and necessary asks. I met a young girl from Offaly at the briefing today who has an acquired brain injury and who has to travel to Dublin for private care. She has been told that her future will be in a nursing home. I know that extra resources have been put in over the last number of years to ensure that young people's places will not be in a nursing home, but in other settings. That is important as well.

The other area I would like to acknowledge relates to a briefing that was organised by Senator Sherlock this morning on behalf of section 39 workers, which is a long-running saga. It was organised by our representatives from SIPTU. These are representatives of organisations who care for some of the most vulnerable across our society. They have not seen pay increases in over a decade because they are not being paid directly by the State but by the organisations. It is a worthy cause, and it is necessary that they are supported. In groups like Ability West in Galway, this is having an impact on recruitment, because people are leaving their organisations to go to the HSE or to section 38 organisations. These organisations have a high number of vacant positions. The retention of staff is an issue as is staff morale.The sustainability of their organisations is impacted by this issue. I ask the Leader to make representations to the Ministers, Deputies Stephen Donnelly and Michael McGrath, on this issue.