Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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205. To ask the Minister for Health the plans being put in place by the Health Service Executive for the 41 school leavers from St. Michael’s House Services in Dublin in June 2016; if Saint Michael's House will be notified of the budget for its transition into the Adult Services; if he will guarantee those students a service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1608/16]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The HSE has already commenced the process of planning for the needs of young people with disabilities who will leave school in June 2016, including those from St. Michael’s House. To ensure that these needs are met, additional funding of €7.25 million is being allocated by the HSE to provide placements for around 1,500 young people who will require continuing health-funded supports on leaving school or rehabilitative (life-skills) training this year.

A meeting of the HSE’s National Project Group which took place in November 2015 has agreed the process for 2016. The approach will be to identify the needs of school-leavers at an early stage of the year, and where service developments are required to meet these needs, the HSE aims to make decisions on the allocation of budgets in enough time to facilitate a September commencement date for the young people concerned.

The HSE has now initiated the process of identifying all those that will require a placement in 2016 and the physical capacity within existing services to accommodate these young people. Once the identification process is complete, a profiling exercise to determine the support needs of these young people will be completed. In addition, as part of the 2016 process, the HSE will also carry out strategic planning for 2017 and 2018.