Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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188. To ask the Minister for Health if he will allocate additional funding to the Health Service Executive to cover the transport costs for the 157 school leavers in the Cork area who received a full time place in adult services having moved on from the Cope Foundation to their new adult day facility; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38920/13]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The Government currently provides funding of over €1.5 billion to the Disability Services Programme through the HSE's National Service Plan for 2013, and is committed to protecting frontline services for people with disabilities to the greatest possible extent.

My colleague the Minister for Health and I are working to ensure that protection is afforded to the disability sector, and the Social Care area as a whole. In 2013 we are seeking to maximise the provision of services within available resources and are committed to maintaining a consistent level to that provided in 2012, by providing the following specialist disability services:

- residential services to over 9,000 people with a disability;

- day services to over 22,000 people with intellectual and physical disabilities;

- respite residential support for over 7,500 people with intellectual and physical disabilities;

- 1.68m hours of Personal Assistant / Home Support services.

I am very much aware of the importance of life-skills training and day support services to young people with disabilities and its importance to their future progression and I have been monitoring the position closely. Although an additional €4 million has been allocated for the provision of school-leavers places, providing appropriate services to meet the needs of well over 800 school-leavers who need a training place or day support was always going to be challenging. The HSE and service providers are working closely together to identify how the needs of all school-leavers can be met within available resources.

The HSE has informed me that from September 2013, all 157 school-leavers in the Cork area will receive a full-time day service, which to me represents a significant achievement by the HSE in collaboration with service providers within the resources provided . All funding allocated for school-leavers in the Cork area has been concentrated on securing a day service for these 157 individuals and I understand from the HSE that there is no scope to provide for additional transport costs.

This was undoubtedly a hard decision for the HSE to take but one which they felt was necessary in order to protect essential services.