Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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45. To ask the Minister for Health if funding for day services for young persons with severe disabilities who have completed school in 2013 will be fully restored; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40039/13]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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I recognise the importance of life-skills training and day support services to young people with disabilities who have left the education system and and its importance to their future progression. It is not a question of funding being withdrawn as funding through the formal education route ceases once a person's education comes to an end. The Department of Education and Skills is responsible for making educational provision for young people with disabilities up to age eighteen. In relation to young adults over eighteen years of age with special needs the Health Service Executive (HSE) has the lead role for the provision of specialised disability support services.

This year the HSE’s National Service Plan includes an additional €4m in demographic funding to help to provide training places and day services for school-leavers and Rehabilitative Training (RT) graduates. The HSE indicate there are 850 young people this year who are making the transition to HSE services compared to 695 school-leavers who required places last year. The provision of services to these young people with support needs is extremely challenging in all regions of the country and the HSE and service providers are making every effort to provide day services to people with disabilities over the age of 18 who require continuing supports. This has always been dependent on the availability and location of appropriate places coupled with the needs of the individual school-leaver and the available resources. Each person is assessed on an individual basis to plan for their services and to identify the most suitable training place or day service placement depending on their particular needs and abilities.

Places have now been provided for 831 school-leavers. Currently 19 school-leavers and 8 RT graduates still require a place and 163 individuals have been provided with a partial placement and require additional hours to fully address their assessed need. Work is underway in each region to address the needs of those individuals who have not been provided with placements or those placements requiring additional hours.

From within the existing disability allocation, resources are being made available by the HSE to enable these remaining places to be provided. The HSE in collaboration with voluntary service providers and umbrella representative groups will put in place the necessary monitoring and oversight arrangements to ensure that these remaining places are in place as speedily as possible.