I am very obliged to the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this important matter for discussion because of the hardship being imposed on very vulnerable people.
The St. John of God Menni service has been forced to introduce cutbacks affecting some of the most vulnerable people in society with effect from 22 April because of a shortfall in its budgetary allocation for 2002. The impact on the clients affected is very severe and the implications for the parents and carers of the clients is additional strain, inconvenience and the almost intolerable burden of being confronted with no respite care for their loved ones. These measures have been implemented due to the forced cuts in expenditure of €710,000 and the director has been allocated €2.9 million short of his budget to maintain the 2001 level of services.
The cost reduction measures have very serious repercussions. The closure of six respite beds at Old Bawn, Tallaght, will in turn mean a 50% reduction in the respite services available to support the students in the St. John of God school, Islandbridge, the discontinuance of the summer camp, reduced extended day and holiday break programmes and the deferral of the move of 60 clients to a new day centre in Tallaght, planned for August and September 2002. It will also defer the commencement of a supported living programme for 38 clients at Tallaght which had been planned for late 2002. There will be a total of 25 jobs and ten day places affected in Celbridge and the 2002 new service development fund will have to be transferred to protect existing services. The filling of 19 vacancies within the service will be deferred, ten of them until January 2003. Of these posts, a significant number relate to the multi-disciplinary team and include speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists and social workers.
The order has 19 vacancies, ten of which have been deferred to 2003 and in circumstances where it is difficult to secure such staff, this is extremely grave and makes the planning of services very difficult. I plead with the Minister of State on the last Adjournment debate of the 28th Dáil to immediately intervene to provide the funding to alleviate the plight of the clients and their carers. Wherever cutbacks have to be made, they should not be visited on people who are so vulnerable and in need of the very limited services that are in place. I hope the Minister of State will be able to tell us that the Government that thinks it can afford to spend €1 billion to build a football stadium can at least provide respite care for people who are badly in need of it.
