Children's end-of-life care
Deputy O'Reilly said the programme for Government promised end-of-life care for children but families still had to travel to Dublin for such services. The Taoiseach said the new children’s hospital would improve care, noted the hospice movement’s work nationwide, and said the commitment would take time to implement.
I refer the Taoiseach to page 57 of the programme for Government which states,"We will ensure appropriate care pathways ... including the provision of hospice and 'end of life care' during the perinatal period, infancy, childhood and adulthood." That is a commitment to provide end-of-life care to children and babies. People outside this Chamber who watch the proceedings in here are heartbroken because they must take their children from the west and the south east to Dublin when they are sick, and those children must go home to be buried. They cannot get access to end-of-life care. The Taoiseach gave a commitment in the programme for Government. The people to whom I refer will be happy to meet him to outline what they need. We know there is a report. We know that the work has been done. Could the Taoiseach please give them some hope?
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The reason we are building a national children's hospital is so that children will have access to the very best level of care-----
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-----to keep them alive and make them well again. As Deputy O'Reilly is well aware, the hospice movement itself does enormous work throughout the country. It is always unfortunate and sad when a child's life ends. The Department of Health and the Government are interested in making the commitment on end-of-life care in the programme for Government a reality. It takes time to implement these things, as the Deputy is aware.