Vol. 560 No. 1
673 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children the amount of money he allocated in 2002 for personal assistants, for the development fund for personal assistants and for people with special needs; the amount of that money which was used; if some of that budget was allocated to acute hospitals; if so, the amount; and the breakdown of same. [1394/03]
In 2002 additional funding of €7.618 million was allocated for the maintenance and development of home support services, including personal assistant services for people with physical and sensory disabilities. This includes the €6.349 million for the full year costs of the 2001 development programme and €1.269 million for the development of further services. This funding was provided in the context of the overall determination of expenditure for each health board in 2002. Under the Health (Amendment) (No 3) Act, 1996, it is the responsibility of each chief executive officer and his board to prioritise funding in order to ensure that services are provided and the allocation is not exceeded. My Department will be monitoring in consultation with the health boards overall spending on health services, including personal assistance services for people with disabilities over the course of 2003.
