Adult intellectual disability services
Deputy Kelly said families of adults with intellectual disabilities were preparing to protest because services had not reopened sufficiently. The Minister of State said she had met the HSE and Health Department, was aware only a minority of services were operating, and funding and communications were being arranged.
A couple of weeks ago I raised a sensitive issue with the Tánaiste in regard to adults with intellectual disabilities. I understand that next week the families will protest outside this venue because nothing has changed. The most vulnerable people in our communities and society, those with intellectual disabilities, are losing the will. I spoke to a mother this morning at 7.30 a.m. whose son is 29 years of age and had been up early. They are at their last tether. What has happened in the last two weeks? I have a list of all services in Ireland across each CHO area. There are little services, if any, in many cases. These are the people we are leaving behind. We are genuinely leaving these people behind. It is immoral. What are we going to do to ensure their day services are returned as soon as possible because we cannot countenance this any more?
Comment on this
I thank Deputy Kelly for raising the issue. In the last 20 days since I took office I have liaised directly with the HSE and the Department of Health and yesterday I met the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to address this particular issue. I am acutely aware that there are 1,000 services and only 286 of them up and running and only 500 people have returned. We have set in place communication between the Department and the various providers. They are all individual units. As I said, I met yesterday with the Minister, Deputy Donnelly. We are acutely aware that funding needs to be put in place to ensure services can reopen in a safe way. A memo will be brought to Cabinet next week seeking funding in respect of which all providers can submit their plans for their units. The objective is to have at a minimum 50% but hopefully 70% of capacity returned by September. That is where we want to get to.