Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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484. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on her Department’s work to increase the provision of respite services. [31672/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly.

Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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485. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to set out a timeline for the release of the working paper on respite services. [31673/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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There has been significant investment in respite in recent years. There is a commitment in the Programme for Government to continue the expansion of respite services, and the Action Plan for Disability Services 2024-2026 recommends that provision is increased by a third. While acknowledging that there is currently no formal policy underpinning Specialist Community Based Disability Respite Services, the Department of Children, Disability and Equality is seeking to ensure that it supports a more coherent and equitable provision of service across the State.

A Stakeholder event with a focus on Respite was held by the Department in September 2024. The event included service providers and disability organisations as well as service users and family representatives.

The Department is now finalising a Working Paper on Respite which aims to assist in supporting and generating discussion on the future direction of respite (the paper will include the output from last year’s stakeholder event).

It is intended that the paper will be shared with the Disability Stakeholder Strategic Advisory Group in the first instance with further dissemination to be considered, including further engagement on respite services.