Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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18. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the budgetary measures implemented since 2020 to support and improve services for adults with additional needs in CHO4; for an update on residential beds and assisted living placements in CHO4; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38881/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I wish to thank the Deputy for raising this matter.

Budgetary Measures:

The HSE advises that Community Healthcare Organisation, CHO4, Cork Kerry Disability Services, received an increase of €61 million to the budget in the period 2020 to May 2024. This figure was allocated to both adult and children services.

Cork Kerry Disability Services provide services for over 13,000 people whose primary address is in Cork or Kerry.

The services provided include residential services, respite, personal assistant services, multidisciplinary therapy services and other community supports.

Disability Services in Cork and Kerry are delivered both directly, through the HSE, and indirectly, through the non-statutory Section 38 and 39 service providers, including not-for-profit and for-profit providers.

Residential Services:

Residential services make up the largest part of the Specialist Disability Services funding disbursed by the HSE, 58% of the total budget. Since 2020 to July this year, over 550 new residential places have been supported. This is in addition to those provided as part of the Tusla-HSE protocol and residential services provided to those moving from nursing homes.

As of July 2024, approximately 90 service providers provided 8578 residential places throughout the country.

To date in 2024, 38 full time residential placement have been allocated in CHO 4.

In line with the position generally, the number of applicants for residential placements in Cork and Kerry exceeds available capacity.

As a result, decision making on allocations is informed by the prioritisation of assessed clinical needs, the complexity of cases, and the support needs of applicants, as well as the existing residents and the funding available.

HSE advises that of those seeking residential services in Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, over 150 of these are high priority cases for whom residential places are required.

Of the 150 cases 20 have been identified as very high need with autism, intellectual disability and severe behavioural issues requiring very high support needs.

Assisted Living

In relation to Assisted Living placements, the planned delivery of 74,840 Personal Assistant hours (for assisted living) in the first half of 2024 has been exceeded by 23%, delivering 92,262 hours across Cork and Kerry in this period.