Dunmanway disability support centre
Michael Collins seeks progress on the long-delayed Dunmanway respite, day-service and autism centre after land was donated and fundraising undertaken. The Taoiseach will ask the HSE for an update and press for the project to advance.
The proposed development of a respite and day service support for individuals with an intellectual disability and an autism centre in Dunmanway is a live project. It is a project that has been discussed for over ten years. While it moves at a snail's pace, sometimes it stops. The former Minister of State, Anne Rabbitte, did a lot of work on it - I give her credit where credit is due - and had progressed it to the point of moving faster. In recent months, John and Mary McCarthy in Dunmanway donated the grounds so now it is up to the HSE to make the next move but it continues to go from person to person because somebody moves to another area and then another area. Jim O'Mahony and the rest of the Kilbrittain committee are extremely frustrated at the way it has dragged on. They are all doing voluntary work dragging in funds as best they can so this project can go ahead. Will the Taoiseach look into it and find out where it is at and how we can we progress it to the point of it going to planning? That is a very important stage and it is not there at this present time.
Comment on this
I think I might have met with people at the very beginning and I did outline that the initial work had to be done to make sure that current funding was available and that it was aligning with existing plans because the land has been donated voluntarily and freely and a huge amount of voluntary fundraising has taken place. I will ask the HSE what the state of play is now to make sure we get this moving.