Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 196: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the reason a person (details supplied) in Dublin 12 will have their respite care terminated as and from May 2008; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14034/08]

Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Therefore, the Executive is the appropriate body to consider the particular case raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 197: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the reason funding for respite care at Cherry Orchard Hospital has been cut and vital respite care services have been scaled down; if she will reverse this decision in view of the undue suffering it will cause for patients and their families; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14035/08]

Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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Arising from Budget 2008, a full year package of €22m has been allocated for new services in the area of older people. This therefore gives a total of over €422m for new services for older people over the last three years. These measures have been designed to both enhance existing services that the Government had already put in place, and also to widen the range of services available to older people.

In this context, over €16m has been provided in the last three years for new Day/Respite Care services. The recent Budget will allow an additional 1,245 clients nationally to avail of new Respite places and brings the total projected Day Care provision by the Health Service Executive to around 21,300 places by the end of this year.

The HSE have committed through it's National Service Plan 2008 to deliver services within its Vote provided by the Oireachtas. It will manage the provision of respite care beds at Cherry Orchard within this context and also recognising the priority the Government and the Executive have given to services for older people.

There is no doubt that demand can at times exceed service resources and that this problem can manifest itself in particular at local level. I understand that there are particular pressures being experienced at Cherry Orchard, and that these are kept under constant review by the HSE.

It is a matter for the Executive to manage service delivery, both nationally and locally, within it's budget and in line with overall health policy priorities. Therefore, the Executive is the appropriate body to consider the particular issue raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the HSE to arrange to have the matter investigated in detail and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.