As we all know, throughout the country the Irish Wheelchair Association provides very valuable and important supports to their service users. These are essential supports for persons with disabilities. For more than a year, there have been limited in-person day services at the Irish Wheelchair Association centre in Cavan town. This has affected 40 service users and their families. I have spoken to these people regularly and they are most disappointed, absolutely annoyed, and understandably very frustrated that adequate in-person day services are not available to them. This is also a source of serious concern to IWA staff locally. A business case was submitted twice to the HSE for the provision of 1.5 whole-time-equivalent staff, which would resolve the issue. This is a reasonable request by any measurement. This must be resolved without further delay. Commitments were given to me and to others previously that the necessary resources would be provided. That must be honoured now after what has been a totally unacceptable delay.

I thank Deputy Smith for raising this issue. It is something that has been raised in the House and it is an issue that has been causing concern over the past number of months. Regrettably, day services recently ceased due to staffing shortages. That has caused a lot of distress to service users, their families and the Irish Wheelchair Association personnel at local level. The service ceased in April and my understanding is that, in August, the service began resumption on a phased basis following a successful recruitment drive. I will raise this again with the HSE. I understand it was a collaboration between the HSE and the IWA in respect of the business case for long-term support requirements, and that an outcome of this was imminent.