Vol. 562 No. 4
309 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Health and Children the way in which it is proposed to cater for children of the Nano Nagle Special School, Listowel, County Kerry, who are due to leave school in June 2003 and who will be unable to avail of the day service provided by the Kerry Parents and Friends Association due to the failure to provide development funding for new services in 2003. [6109/03]
I am aware of the concerns regarding the provision of services to persons with an intellectual disability and those with autism. Between 1997 and 2002, an extra €188 million revenue and €139 million capital funding has been provided, making a total additional investment of €327 million for the maintenance and development of services to persons with an intellectual disability and those with autism. In the current year, further additional funding of €13.3 million has been allocated to services for persons with an intellectual disability or autism to meet the full year cost of the 2002 developments and to further enhance the health related support services to children with an intellectual disability or autism. This funding brings the total extra investment in these services to €340 million over seven years. Of this total amount, over €200 million has been built into the ongoing budget base.
This funding has brought about very significant and unprecedented developments in the services. Between 1997 and 2002, about 1,700 extra residential places have been provided, with most of these based in the community. This figure includes new residential respite places which were developed in 1997 and 1998. Between 1999 and 2002, about 465 dedicated respite places were also provided. In addition, the period from 1997 to 2002 saw the provision of around 2,950 new day places.
