Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 25: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views on whether, as a matter of policy, it is preferable that children with severe disabilities are looked after in the family home as opposed to an acute children's ward of a hospital and that the average annual cost to the State of such home care provision is a fraction of the cost of hospital maintenance and that in this situation it also makes economic sense to support the services provided by such as a foundation (details supplied) which is facilitating such a policy. [6649/10]

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The HSE provided funding of €585,000 to the Jack and Jill Foundation in 2009 and will be happy to consider the report "There's no Place like Home" as part of its engagement with the Foundation this year. Neither my Department nor the HSE were involved in the preparation of this report. I agree that, in general, children's needs are most appropriately met and provided in the home, and that we need to ensure more efficient use of resources. However, many children availing of services provided by the Jack and Jill Foundation also avail of other disability services, and the report did not compare the respective costs of the home based care provided by the Foundation with the cost of similar services provided by the HSE.

The current economic and budgetary position means we can only continue to fund new services by reducing costs and greater efficiency, including achieving greater integration of services provided by the statutory and non-statutory sectors. I should mention in this context that my Department is undertaking a review of the efficiency and effectiveness of the health and personal services provided to people with disabilities. This review is part of the Government's Value for Money and Policy Review programme. The review will focus, in particular, on the scope for achieving greater efficiency and effectiveness from the substantial resources expended on services for people with disabilities, and will support the future planning and development of such services. I can assure the Deputy that the issues raised in the Jack and Jill Report will be considered as part of that review.