On behalf of the Rural Independent Group I thank the Ceann Comhairle and want to be associated with all the remarks to the staff and everybody else. I wish everybody a happy, holy, peaceful and restful Christmas.

My question concerns a restful Christmas. The Brothers of Charity do sterling work throughout the Twenty-six Counties and have for decades, but they are starved of funding at present. The worst area is respite. Families who have challenging young adults, and maybe adults, need respite. What keeps them alive is the weekend they get every month or two months. It is being hammered and the Brothers of Charity need the funding. They have dedicated staff and I thank them. They will be working over Christmas. The families need respite. In County Tipperary it is an acute problem. They are not getting respite, parents are getting sick and are under huge strain. In a year when the Government has spent about €5 billion extra on top of what the HSE always had, I cannot see why this valuable organisation should be starved for cash.

I thank the Deputy for raising that question. There is no organisation left starved for cash after this budget. One of my major priorities in funding this year was respite. The real issue is we have to reduce staff in buildings where we have the virus. I am happy to say all the organisations are working hard to bring it back up to 100% capacity to ensure families get the respite they need.