Kathleen Funchion Raises Day-Service Charges and Housing Worries
Kathleen Funchion spoke on 11 Oct 2022 about pressures on day services and gaps in supports for people with disabilities in the South East. She urged the minister to meet with parents to seek a constructive resolution to new charges, transport cost increases and related service and housing problems.
Day services in the South East
She highlighted parents in Carr, local Kenya who have been notified that their day service will begin charging for additional activities and that transport costs have risen. She said these changes are causing uncertainty for families who rely on day services.
Management pressures and voluntary charges
Funchion noted she sees both sides of the issue, having met service managers who are struggling financially. She compared the situation to voluntary contributions in schools and described the tensions between avoiding charges and sustaining services.
Waiting on assessments and therapies
She raised ongoing gaps in services for children with additional needs, including long waits for assessments and therapies. She framed these delays as part of a broader shortfall in supports that affects families daily.
Housing and specialist equipment issues
Funchion recounted two recent housing cases – a family carrying a severely disabled 15-year-old up stairs while waiting for a bungalow allocation, and a woman told by the HSE to go to Argus to buy a specialist stroller. She asked if the minister, Minister Rabbit, would meet parents to try to resolve these specific local issues, recalling a successful meeting on another South East matter a year or two earlier.
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Thanks very much. First of all, I want to commend my own colleague, Deputy Tully, for all of her work, not only bringing this motion forward but in general, and she's representative on Disability Matters and also on the Autism Committee. I have two and a half minutes, so the few areas I want to cover, Minister, firstly, I wanted to raise an issue of day services in the South East, particularly in Carr, local Kenya. I've been contacted by parents recently who have been given notices that their day service now has to start charging for some additional activities and there's also been an increase in transport costs. So I see actually both sides of this argument because in fairness I've also met with management in some of the day services and they're struggling. It's sort of like the voluntary contributions in schools, they don't want to have to charge it but I suppose for parents and for people who have somebody in a day service, you know, they're unsure as to know, they're unsure as to when this is going to end and the reason I'm taking the opportunity to raise that is a number of parents or hoping to meet with yourself, Minister Rabbit, and I think we actually had a very successful meeting, it could even be two years ago now, but at least a year ago, with another issue in the South East that actually got resolved, so if you would be open to that, I'm going to take the opportunity to ask you possibly. It would be a constructive meeting just to try and get a resolution to the issue. I just want to briefly mention, and it's been said, and sometimes I'm not sure what more we can say, but in relation to just the lack of services for children with additional needs, whether it's waiting on an assessment, whether it is waiting on a therapy, I also wanted to just really briefly mention housing, because sometimes that part of it falls through the cracks, and just the difficulty with people in relation to housing, recently I've had two people, somebody, they're carrying their very severely disabled son up the stairs, he's 15, and they can't seem to be able to be allocated a bungalow property, and the other issue I want to really briefly raise is a woman who basically was recently told by the HSE to go to Argus to buy a particular stroller for her son who needs a wheelchair, and it's just to get the opportunity to raise some of these issues that that's really not acceptable. I see the clock is ticking, I want to give my colleagues time, but I just commend the motion as well. Thank you.
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