I want to raise the ongoing crisis in the allocation and provision of respite care services, particularly for children and adults with a disability. As the Taoiseach will be aware, this is an area that has effectively been in a deep crisis since the national disability strategy was launched in 2004. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Rabbitte, who I commend on her compassion and her strong commitment to improving this service, has accepted that further progress on addressing the deficit in services is needed. The situation has not been helped in the last few years with the transfer of functions in this area from the Department of Health to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, in addition to the chaos that Covid-19 brought about with the closure of residential day care services.

There is a lack of cohesion and an inability to pin down precisely where the responsibility for respite care actually lies. This is compounded by the issue of transport services for adults and children with a disability. A family is allocated a respite place only to find out that there is no transport, or they have transport and then find out that there is no respite bed. I am aware that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, recently announced funding for the upgrading and improvement of the transport options for HSE-funded disability organisations and that is welcome. However, what good is that if there are no residential or respite services for people to be transported to?

Last week, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O’Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, issued a statement on the impact of the war in Ukraine on persons with disabilities, saying: "Ireland will not leave people with disabilities behind as we respond to the crisis". Leaving no disabled person behind is exactly the type of ambition we need. That said, there are many families who will have heard or read that statement and questioned, not the will, but the capacity of the State to deliver on that promise.

Hear, hear.

They will have looked at their own children or their young adults who are falling between the cracks in terms of child and adult disability services. Where will the services come from? How can we talk of leaving no disabled person behind when it is clear that we already have a system that is manifestly unable to provide even the most minimal levels of respite care for thousands of adults and children languishing on respite care and disability lists? What assessments are taking place of the further strain that will be placed on our already creaking and highly dysfunctional respite services?

I emphasise this is not about refusing help. It is about asking difficult and important questions because, at present, it is abundantly clear that we simply do not have the capacity to meet the existing respite care needs. Does the Taoiseach agree that our rhetoric should be shaped by our capacity to deliver on those promises that we are making to disabled persons, irrespective of where they come from?

I appreciate the Deputy raising this issue. She referred to the transfer of disability policy and functions from the Department of Health to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. That was a deliberate decision. In fact, before the last general election there was much commentary on disability services and there was a view that for the medium term it would be better if there was a more singular focus on disability by a new Department. The view was that within the enormity of the Department of Health and all the issues in that Department disability was not getting the type of focus that it should under that statutory framework and delivery system. That was the motivation behind it and it is one I support. There have been challenges, as there always are, when it comes to transferring services from one Department to another, particularly in the delivery mechanisms.

Second, there has been additional funding. New funding of approximately €65 million has been allocated to disability services in the budget for 2022. Of that, approximately €9 million is for respite care services. That said, I am not satisfied with where we are in respect of disability services, and I want to be candid about that, and particularly with regard to respite and the provision of therapies to children. For a number of years the HSE has developed a progressing disability services programme and approach, and the Government has allocated additional funding to the HSE in respect of therapists. I am still not satisfied that the translation, as it were, of that resource to parents on the ground is happening to the degree that it should. In an earlier era, I was involved in developing new schools for occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy in the colleges outside Dublin, so we have a regional spread in terms of providing more graduates. However, it is not translating to the degree that it should in terms of services for children.

I acknowledge what the Deputy said about the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and others. I also acknowledge we have more work to do in that regard, particularly on the provision of therapies and respite services. There has been ongoing progress with after-school services, community initiatives, personal assistant hours, school-leavers day services and so forth. Again, we believe that shift from the Department of Health to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is the right decision, ultimately, in terms of having a focused delivery mechanism. Capacities have to be built up, as well as proper integration between those delivering services on the ground with the parent Department.

I thank the Taoiseach for his response, but even with the transfer of functions to another Department the issue of respite care in disability services is not getting enough focus.

It is still severely lacking. This comes back to my core question. How will we cope with the pressures? How will respite services in this country cope with additional pressures? We need to answer this question honestly because many families are concerned. Every week in my offices I meet families who are struggling. They are begging for help. They are begging for respite for adult children. They are unable to cope and they have health conditions themselves. Will we assure these people there will be no erosion of current services, weak and all as they are, with the extra pressures coming into the system? We need to have this honest debate now. We need to provide assurances to these many families throughout the State who are struggling. They are pleading for more help and for basic respite services. We owe it to these families to be very clear that their services will not be eroded in any way and that more services will be put into the system to help these families.

I do not want to juxtapose in the mainstream the ongoing national provision of services for disabilities with the war in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine is devastating for the people of Ukraine. It has enormous implications for the Continent of Europe and the world at large. Across the board we will have to rise above what we do normally in respect of helping and doing everything we can to support the people of Ukraine as part of the European Union. I do not think we can resile from that. We are doing analysis of the refugees coming into the country so it can inform the type of responses we need to make. Apart from accommodation we will need responses in education, early childcare and health. It is very serious. For example, yesterday I was informed that approximately 6,000 unaccompanied minors from Ukraine have entered the European Union. We will have a share of them. It is an appalling vista to comprehend and we cannot let these children behind. We have to do everything we can and rise above what we normally do. I appreciate the points the Deputy is making and she is making them honestly and I accept that.