2025-12-18

12. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the measures she is taking to improve disability services in Kerry. [72874/25]

As Minister for State with special responsibility for disabilities, I am committed to delivering a step-change in supports and services for people with disabilities and their families, ensuring they are enabled to live full lives of their own choosing and on an equitable basis with everyone else in society. The Department has been working closely with the HSE to deliver on this ambition and improve disability services for all who use them. The Deputy will be aware that services are provided on the basis of need and funding is provided now through the regional health areas, RHAs. The Deputy has asked about the improvements being made to disability services in Kerry, which falls within the HSE South West RHA. As part of a broader programme of work, the HSE, with the support of the Department, has progressed a range of service improvements in the Kerry area. As previously stated, the programme for Government includes a commitment to the continued expansion of all types of respite services, building on additional investment and progress over the past few years. The HSE South West disability service operates separate children and adult regional respite forums. Each forum manages the referral and respite service provision for the population of the region to ensure equitable access to respite services, consistent with each person's assessed need and preference. Service provider representatives and HSE South West disability service personnel comprise the membership of the regional respite forum. The HSE South West disability services provide a range of respite models for children and adults and these include: residential overnight respite centres, after-school clubs for children and young people, in-home support, outreach support and holiday breaks for adults. These options ensure that respite is provided in the manner which best meets the needs of the people and their families and carers. RHA HSE South West, which extends to the Cork and Kerry areas, provided 17,181 respite overnights in 2024, 2,833 day-only respite sessions and supported 760 people with a disability. Kerry residential respite services for children aged between 6 and 18 years of age are delivered by St. John of God Services. There are two residential respite houses, one in north Kerry and one in south Kerry. Each house has four respite beds and operates seven days per week, with planned closures this equates to approximately 2,800 respite beds for children.

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I remember attending a meeting in Listowel last year when the services in north Kerry were closed. It turned out that they were reopened but there were such levels of stress and anxiety among the families and the service users who were used to attending the service, which was just outside Listowel, the north Kerry service the Minister of State mentioned. Will the Minister of State guarantee to expand those services because it is a county where, for example, we have only have two early school intervention classes in the whole of the county whereas County Cork has 22 of them and there are three in the town of Mallow alone? The early services are not there and they need to be expanded. I will come back to it in a few minutes but the NCSE letters that have been sent out are a matter of grave concern also.

Just to advise the Deputy that our Department and the HSE are currently auditing respite services to have better visibility and to be able to plan better and make decisions based on the need. It is our intention to increase both overnight and day respite next year throughout the country. That will be part if the HSE's national services statement and national services plan and we will be making the decisions on that based on the level of current provision and the level of identified need in an area. I hope that is of benefit to the Deputy in terms of his own county.

The NCSE recently said it is saying it is no longer in a position to issue letters of eligibility for ASD classes in schools and special schools because it issued a deadline on 1 October and it is using that as an excuse to tell parents they are not getting places and to contact the school for any additional supports. Clearly, it is not appropriate to issue a final deadline like that. There is huge stress and anxiety among the parents. We heard earlier about the judicial review and there are legal challenges available to some of those parents where they are not getting the services they require. Will the Department give more flexibility so that people can access the proper services in a timely manner?

Just to clarify, the NCSE is under the remit of the Department of education rather than our Department. I know this is something the Minister of State with responsibility for special education and the Minister for education are looking at. Together with the NCSE, they had set a date of 1 October for applications. That was to be able to give the parents better clarity, better security and early decision-making ahead of the coming academic year. I appreciate that there are parents who may have been in a position to provide information after this date. That is something I have raised directly with the Minister of State with responsibility for special education.