Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I certainly appreciate that the Minister of State is here to take on board what I am going to say. I have no doubt that he will go back to the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, Deputy Rabbitte, and the Minister for Health with these sad and pertinent points and the situations I am going to describe. Many of us deal with this issue for the people we represent. I know the Minister of State appreciates the importance of supporting families and communities to grow, develop and prosper, be that through adequate education, adequate therapeutic supports or adequate social infrastructure. The decisions, laws and policies we make in these Houses have the potential to be transformative for the lives of the people we represent. However, lack of action also risks stagnation and communities and families being very negatively impacted.

I am going to talk about two families that have been very negatively impacted by the lack of supports for their children and for them. Obviously I am not going to mention their names. One family are doing absolutely everything in their power to access the services they so desperately need but they are not getting anywhere. Their son is now 20. He is practically non-verbal and he has a number of developmental disorders. He has been registered and put on the waiting list for full-time residential care with one of our section 39 organisations. While he has been registered, the family home situation has deteriorated to a crisis point. I will honestly say that the family, with all the love in the world, are unable to meet his needs. A number of medical professionals have strongly supported the application for residential care as his current situation does not meet any of his needs, either physical or social. He requires an adequately supported living environment and so do his family.

I have been liaising with the HSE on this, I have liaised with Ministers and I am raising it here on the floor. Here is a 20-year-old man living at home with his parents and his younger siblings. He becomes agitated and upset at all times, day and night, which leads to extreme aggressive episodes. One of the parents has already had a nervous breakdown. No family should have to deal with this on their own. It has a hugely negative impact, particularly on the younger siblings. They do not have a life. They cannot go on holidays. It is always tense. Once a month there is respite for two days - it is two hours away - when the family can try to learn to be a family once more.

I have been in politics a long time and I have come across a lot of different situations.To have a dad sitting across from the desk and explaining what life is like on a day-to-day basis makes me concerned for the dad and the family. This is an absolute crisis.

A school principal contacted me about another family situation where a nine-year-old boy is in a school without adequate support. Sadly, the boy's dad took his own life a few months ago. The mum has mental health problems and was taken into psychiatric care so there was no one to care for the child. There is still no one to care for the child. The mum had to leave psychiatric care to care for the child. The principal rang me to see if there was anything I could do. I feel so helpless. There are so many issues like this that come across our desks. We have to put supports in place cases like this. The Tánaiste has said there is enough money. What is the issue? We can put more money into the housing. A lot of our section 39 organisations are registered as housing co-operatives. We should be able to support those. Some of them have places. How do I go back and support these families?