I welcome the opportunity to raise this important issue of residential places for persons with a learning disability, particularly in the Eastern Health Board region. I thank the Minister for coming into the House to reply.
As the Minister will be aware, there are waiting lists in all of the health board regions but nothing like the scale of those in the Eastern Health Board area. A particular cause for concern is the fact that, despite promises by successive Governments to clear waiting lists, the lists are growing and the indications are that they will reach crisis proportions if immediate action is not taken.
The number of persons now requiring immediate admission is 528, an increase of 80 on last year. Therefore, despite commitments given to systematically reduce this backlog, it is clear that the funding available annually is simply not sufficient to stabilise the list, much less clear it.
Each year, as the Minister is aware, there are unforeseen emergency admissions for a number of reasons, for instance, the death or ill health of a carer. Increasingly, children are born with multiple handicaps and survive birth due to better medical care. These children require an ongoing level of care which would be impossible in the ordinary family home, and they go from hospital into residential care where the necessary back-up services — 24 hour care, supervision and medical care — are available.
With the number of emergency cases rising, and the cost per capita of their care also rising, we have a situation in the Eastern Health Board where most of next year's expected additional allocation is already committed and, as a result, no inroads will be made into the list. These adults and children have to be provided for but the reality for those on the waiting list is that they simply stay on the list with their prospect of admission diminishing each year.
Outlining statistics and talking about waiting lists masks the reality of these people's lives. Behind each of these 528 families is a story of extreme human misery, ongoing distress and complete exhaustion which comes with giving 24 hour care on a continuous basis. These people are not reneging on their responsibilities or seeking to be a burden on the taxpayer. In most cases they are very elderly people, widows or widowers, who have devoted their whole lives to the care of their handicapped children and now, in their old age, they find they cannot get a place for their children.
I fully recognise that providing a place for a handicapped person is expensive but it is a finite problem. If the Minister dealt with this backlog there would be sufficient beds in the system to provide for each year's emergencies simply through natural wastage.
A parents' federation was formed recently and its members had a meeting with the Minister for Finance to seek funding for residential places; I understand those parents got an unsympathetic hearing. I appreciate there are many calls on the public purse but taxpayers do not want a reduction in their tax at the expense of these parents.
Having devoted their whole lives to the care of their children, these parents should not have to face old age not knowing what will happen to their sons or daughters after their death. They are currently facing that uncertainty and dying with it. This is evidenced by the fact that a siblings group has now been formed. The sisters and brothers are now taking over the responsibility of care from their parents. It is neither right nor just that parents or siblings have to squander their precious resources and reserves of energy lobbying Ministers, TDs, councillors and health boards to get care for their relatives. It is our job to provide that for them and it is a shame on all of us that it has not been done.
I ask the Minister to do all he can in the forthcoming budget to provide as much funding as possible to clear the backlog and end this scandal once and for all.
