Noel O'Donovan (Fine Gael)

I want to raise an issue I have raised a number of times in the House, and this is the issue of respite care for young people with intellectual and physical disabilities and older people with disabilities. I referred to a situation in west Cork where we have a severe deficit in respite care. It is an issue that has become more apparent. Last week in west Cork we had an AGM for CoAction and in the room there was frustration, anger and deep worry among parents about the level of respite care available in west Cork. It is something I feel beholden to raise here. Yes, I am a member of a Government party but respite care in west Cork is unavailable. It is something we need to fix. Recently I met Family Carers Ireland and they spoke about conducting a national audit. We do respite well in some parts of the country but in other areas, there are serious blackspots. At ministerial level and in the HSE we need to hold to account areas of the country and organisations that do not provide respite.

I speak to parents who are at their wits' end in trying to support family members. I speak to siblings in family set-ups who question whether they should have taken on the care of family members because of the difficulties they face. This is not a place any human being should be in. I feel a duty to raise this and speak about it here. Recently there was an increase in the disability budget of €600 million, which is welcome, but we need to see how the money will be spent throughout the country. I would welcome a debate with the new Minister with responsibility for disability to see what action will be taken to ensure we have respite. We are in 2025. If any of us want to stay anywhere in the world we go to booking.com and check availability and calendars. Why can families in this country not go online and check availability for respite care? We have people who have never got respite care. They are doing the job of the State and getting very little support for it. I hope the Leader will appreciate my emotion on this because I am trying to transfer what I am hearing when I speak to these family members. We need to see change in this drastically and very soon.