Seamus Healy TD speaking on Topical Issues re Funding of Respite Services Summer Camp at St. Rita’s in Clonmel 27 June 2019
June 29, 2019It is disgraceful that parents had to take to the airwaves to demand that the decision to cut summer respite services for children with special needs run by the Brothers of Charity at St. Rita’s in Clonmel be reversed. I commend those parents, who have been superb advocates for their children and for the disability family. The Minister of State will know that they are under pressure on a daily basis, 365 days a year. They did not need the additional frustration, worry and annoyance of the past year. These parents are entitled to and due an apology.
For years, those parents and we as TDs called for Summer respite services. Thankfully, that was eventually established in 2018, and last year’s Summer camp was professionally run, hugely successful and very valuable to both the children and the parents. Some 20 families were supported at very reasonable costs. Parent power has now saved that Summer camp. I again commend the parents for the campaign they have launched over the past week on the radio and by contacting their public representatives and the wider public.
Today I asked the Minister of State Finian McGrath to explain the exact situation in relation to this year’s Summer camp. I asked had the decision to cut this service been fully reversed? Have the Brothers of Charity been notified of this decision? Will the same level of service be available this year as last year? Will the same level of funding be available this year as last year?
Minister McGrath stated in part of his reply that the South East Community Healthcare, SECH, provides children’s respite services in two locations in south Tipperary including the Brothers of Charity camp in St. Rita’s respite services. In addition, SECH provides outreach and home-based respite to children with challenges accessing centre-based respite for a number of reasons including those confined to home for complex medical reasons or difficulty socialising safely with other children as a result of emerging diagnosis and responsive behaviours. He stated that the HSE is fully committed to maintaining the same level of service this year as in 2018. The additional funding provided last year will continue in 2019 and, in particular, the €2 million allocation to be spent on alternative respite services remains a high priority for the HSE. SECH acknowledges the quality service provided by St. Rita’s and will ensure that the necessary resources required for the Summer respite programme in St. Rita’s will continue to be provided to the Brothers of Charity in 2019.
I welcome this reply from the Minister, particularly the statement he made that the necessary resources required for the Summer respite programme in St. Rita’s will continue to be provided to the Brothers of Charity in 2019. That will be a relief to parents. It is a pity it had to come to this and the turmoil parents have been put through over the past week. It should never have been allowed to happen and I certainly hope it will never happen again. I asked the Minister of State to confirm that this respite service will continue next year and into the future. This service is essential for children with special needs and their families.
The Minister stated that when he left the Chamber he would be asking who put the parents through this particular situation. He stated that he is very much aware of the importance of access to planned respite, which ensures that people with disabilities receive opportunities to socialise and facilitates families to receive a break from caring, to preserve the family unit and to provide stability. He added that he gave a commitment three years ago that he would reform the disability services, invest in them, and put the person at the centre of those services, that there was a need to expand those services and that was his objective.
I will as always continue to follow up and keep you updated.
Nobody with a whit of common sense believes the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohue, and indeed the Government were not aware of the national children’s hospital debacle. It is in fact now crystal clear that the Minister for Health and the Minister for Finance were fully aware of the huge hospital overrun at the time of the last budget. The Minister for Finance had the chief Government procurement officer on the board of the hospital who was involved at all levels, including financial sub-committee level. The cover-up included confidentiality pledges to ensure the Government would not be formally or officially informed until after the budget. And why was that, that was because this Government wanted to continue to give huge tax concessions to the super-rich backers of this Government.
There is no justification for the Government delaying health and other capital projects using the excuse of the cost overrun on the children’s hospital project. The hospitals serving my constituency of Tipperary, South Tipperary General Hospital and University Hospital Limerick, are the most overcrowded in the country. I want to tell the Minister for Health that no cancellation, no suspension, no long-fingering and no delaying of capital projects affecting Tipperary will be tolerated and I include in that the completion and opening of the 40-bed modular unit at South Tipperary General Hospital, the building of a new 50-bed unit at South Tipperary General Hospital, the building of a new 100-bed unit at St. Patrick’s Hospital in Cashel and the building of a 60-bed unit at University Hospital Limerick.
The Irish super-rich are dripping with wealth and gaining more by the day. The Government’s policy is not only not to tax the super-rich but also to give them tax concessions. The Government is in fact the politically extremist representative of the super-rich at the expense of citizens generally in this country. I believe the Government should bring forward an emergency budget to claw back the €250 million worth of tax concessions given to the super-rich in the last three budgets, and I include in that those given to the 25,700 individuals with incomes ranging from €200,000 and in excess of €2 million.
It is time for the Minister for Health to go and to take the Minister for Finance with him and give the public an opportunity to make a decision on this Government in a General Election. It is time for Fianna Fáil and the Independents who are supporting the Government, it’s time for Deputies Lowry and Cahill and other Independents to call it out on this issue and support the motion.
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