I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, to the House.
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Cycling Facilities
I thank the Cathaoirleach sincerely for allowing me to raise this matter. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth. It is always a pleasure to have him in the House as he gives open and frank answers to Senators when we raise issues.
I would like to have a discussion rather than make a request. Like many others, I welcome the huge amount of money being invested in active travel such as walking and cycling routes. It is fantastic. It is wonderful to see access routes to some schools, particularly those near villages and towns, and young children cycling and walking to school, which all of us will agree is far better. The issue I want to discuss is how we improve these routes to schools in rural areas. On quieter, narrower roads where verges are often overgrown, the cost of putting routes in place would be significant in some cases. I would like the possibility of adding a new phase to the routes being put in place, perhaps via a pilot scheme in some counties, to be explored.
Children love to cycle and walk. They love nature and weather does not seem to phase them. We all accept that walking and cycling are far healthier. Roosky, like many other towns and villages, is becoming more walking and cycle friendly. We have a few issues with local schools. Part of the bridge over the River Shannon is in Leitrim and part is in Roscommon and it is unfortunately very narrow. If two vehicles are passing on the bridge, a child, adult or parent with a buggy cannot pass. It would be a wonderful idea - and it has been spoken about - to install a footbridge. It would be environmentally friendly and would provide safe passage across the bridge for cyclists and walkers and help children going to school.
It would be nice to have pilot schemes for rural schools for which access is an issue because of road width. To make these roads safe, hedges would have to be cut back and perhaps replaced with timber fencing and drainage pipes would need to be put down to close off drains along roadsides. As I said, this involves a big cost but substantial money is now being spent on active travel, which is a very good thing for all of our people. Perhaps this proposal could be considered. I look forward to the Minister of State's reply.
I thank Senator Murphy for raising the safe routes to school programme and providing me with the opportunity to address the Seanad about this topic on behalf of the Minister for Transport.
The programme for Government sets out an ambitious and wide-ranging set of commitments in relation to walking and cycling. It committed that €360 million in cross-government funding would be spent on walking and cycling every year over the lifetime of the Government. This is equivalent to 20% of the 2020 transport capital budget. This investment is helping to support the planned delivery of almost 1,000 km of improved walking and cycling infrastructure by 2025 and additional investment in greenways.
Earlier this year, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, announced an allocation of €289 million for active travel in 2022 and an additional investment of €60 million for greenways. This year's allocation builds on significant progress. In recent years, expenditure on and delivery of active travel projects has increased substantially. It has quadrupled from approximately €45 million in 2019 to €184 million in 2021 and this high level of funding will continue in 2023.
The National Transport Authority, NTA, works with local authorities to allocate this funding to specific projects. In 2022, Roscommon County Council received €3.2 million in active travel funding, while Leitrim County Council received €2 million. Provision for projects under the safe routes to school programme in both local authority areas is included in this funding. The programme was launched by the Department of Transport in 2021 and it has the aim of supporting walking, scooting and cycling to primary and post-primary schools and creating safer walking and cycling routes within communities through the provision of infrastructure interventions.
There was a fantastic response to the call which was sent to all schools in the country. Some 931 applications received and 170 schools were notified on 21 June 2021 that they had been selected for inclusion in the first round of the programme. Two schools have since deferred their applications and one school has withdrawn, leaving 167 schools in round 1. It should be noted that all schools that applied to the original call for applications were accepted into the programme. If not selected in round 1, they will be selected for forthcoming rounds.
The safe routes to school, SRTS, team in the NTA, and An Taisce have confirmed that no schools in Rooskey, County Roscommon, itself applied to the programme. The nearest school to Rooskey that was included in round 1 of the programme is Scoil Mhuire in Newtown Forbes, County Longford, which is currently at options development phase. There are five schools in County Roscommon which applied and were selected for round 1 of the safe routes to school programme. These are Carrick National School, Ballinlough, and Scoil Náisiúnta Cruacháin, Croghan, which are also at options development phase, and St. Joseph’s National School, Coláiste Chiaráin, Summerhill, Athlone, and St Paul’s National School, Castlerea, which are at preliminary design phase.
In terms of overall progress under the safe routes to school programme, 17 schools had front-of-school measures completed under the programme, 16 schools are in the detailed design phase and three are under construction. The remainder are under development or design or are involved in statutory processes or public consultation. In addition, under a separate branch of the programme, 303 schools have had cycle parking installed. Since its launch, about €3 million has been spent to date. Due to the overwhelming initial response to the programme, with over one quarter of all schools in the country submitting an application, there are currently no plans for an additional call for schools to join the programme at this time. It is worth noting that schools which did not apply to the programme may be eligible for mainstream active travel funding towards walking and cycling interventions. Schools seeking such funding should contact their local authority directly.
I welcome the Minister of State's statement and acknowledge the significant amount of money that has come into counties Roscommon and Longford. The positive thing about this is that of the 170 schools that were notified they had been included, only three opted out for genuine reasons. I presume some of them will come back on stream again. It shows that schoolchildren, teachers and parents are very much pro this type of activity. In the area I am talking about, particularly regarding national schools and the local knowledge, there is Ballyfeeney National School out from Rooskey, there is Rooskey school, there is Slatta school, and there is Cloonfour, all in the immediate region. The problem we have is that it is extremely difficult to put routes on rural roads and in rural. We have to get it safe, we cannot take chances, and we all acknowledge that. I acknowledge that to put some of those routes in place would be very expensive. I presume, what the Minister of State will say is that schools can apply again when the time occurs and see what could be done in terms of possibly putting in part of route, whereby it may be possible for people to be dropped off at a point and then take their bikes to the school. That would be good.
I welcome the statement. I will go back to the schools about this. I am encouraged that the Government policy will be to continue this type of funding. The money is there now for next year.
I thank the Senator. Right now, money is not the problem or the constraint. Under our programme for Government, €1 million a day is available for walking and cycling improvements. What better way is there to spend that than to make it safe for children to walk and cycle to school? It has multiple benefits, but part of it is just health and happiness and not making parents have to drive their children to school before they go to work, and so on. It is a very good thing to do.
Any school that did not apply or was not included can go to the local authority. My understanding on the local authorities is that the problem is not the lack of money but that the local authorities are not getting around to spending the money. Local representatives should lobby their local authority to allocate the money and spend it. This is not money which is specially targeted to urban or suburban areas. If a national school is one kilometre outside the village and has no footpath, the money can be spent on footpaths. It does not have to be about cycling and bikes. It can be about making it safe to walk to school; even just providing an option. That is the reason parents do not allow their kids to walk to school. When we do the research about why children are driven to school, it is all about safety. If we can provide a safe route, a safe alternative, we know it will happen. In my county, in one of the schools where interventions were made, 90% of the children are now walking and cycling to school, which is an incredible change from where it had been. It had been about 30%. It can work.
Regarding Leitrim County Council and walking and cycling infrastructure across the river in Rooskey, I know the NTA has granted an allocation for this project in the 2022 active travel allocations and it is expected the local authority should be in a position to have a consultant in place before the end of this year to undertake the initial concept and feasibility study for the provision of a suitable measure at this location. That could be a footpath across the river, a shuttle system or some other intervention.
Education and Training Boards
I thank the Cathaoirleach's office for choosing this Commencement debate. I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. As the Minister of State is aware, the education and training boards, ETBs, came into being in 2013 and will celebrate ten years in existence on 1 July 2023. They follow on from the vocational educational committees, VECs. In total they have about 32,000 staff throughout the country, with a spend in excess of €2 billion. I take this opportunity to congratulate a colleague in County Galway, Councillor Michael "Moegie" Maher, on becoming president of the Education and Training Boards Ireland, ETBI, recently. He will be in that position for the next two years. The ETBs are a major provider of educational services at second and third level. In County Galway there is a huge array of colleges, including Galway Technical Institute, Galway Community College, Clarin College, Coláiste an Chreagáin and post-primary schools including Coláiste an Eachréidh, Coláiste Bhaile Chláir, Coláiste Cholmcille, Coláiste na bPiarsach, Coláiste na Coiribe, Coláiste Naomh Éinne, Coláiste Naomh Eoin, Coláiste Naomh Feichín and Merlin College in Galway city as well, and recently, a couple of community national schools. Galway-Roscommon ETB has a footprint across the city and counties of Galway and Roscommon.
Déanann Bord Oideachais agus Oiliúna na Gaillimhe agus Ros Comáin sárobair ar son an oideachais in iar-bhunscoileanna, i gcoláistí breisoideachais agus, le níos déanaí, i scoileanna náisiúnta pobail trasna an dá chontae. Tá sé ag lorg solúbthachta agus neamhspleáchais maidir le cúrsaí earcaíochta laistigh den fhoireann a bhí aige roimh an moratóir.
Flexibility and independence are things that ETBs had in the past and they wish to have again in the future for more efficient management of their affairs. A report commissioned by then Minister for Education, Michael Woods, in October 2000 by Sean Cromien suggested VECs at the time would benefit from greater independence and autonomy in that this would reduce the need for recourse to the Department on issues which would normally expect to be within the remit of the chief executive and there was considerable scope for delegation in the vocational education sector. On the requirement for the Minister for Education to approve individual teacher appointments in VECs, he said this appeared to be unnecessary.
This is a problem. For example, for small issues, if a staff member has to go out on maternity leave, the board has to get permission from the parent Department to sanction and allow that. If a staff member needs or wishes to go on a career break, equally, the board does not have that delegated authority within the ETB. It has to get permission from the Department of Education. If there is a critical illness, there is no independence or autonomy within the ETB. It has to go back to the parent department. This seems unnecessary. It is about managing the resources that are sanctioned within the ETB. There is a headline figure or a whole-time equivalent, within, for example, Galway-Roscommon ETB. It is not about seeking independence to go over that; that is a different matter. It is about managing the resources within the allocation of staffing. It is about the chief executive being able to know he or she can replace someone who goes on maternity leave or a career break or that there is a pathway to progression for somebody, that the chief executive knows that if a grade 7 staff member leaves, that person will be replaced.
That is what we are asking for.
I thank Senator Kyne. I invite the Minister of State to respond.
I thank the Chair and Senator Kyne. The Minister for Education has asked me to answer this question about staffing arrangements for ETBs on her behalf. As Senator Kyne may be aware, the arrangements for the allocation of teaching posts and the allocation of special needs assistants in all schools, including ETB schools, are set down in various circulars issued by the Department of Education. As regards such posts, schools and ETBs have autonomy in the recruitment and replacement of staff within the agreed and approved staffing allocation granted to the school in question and subject to relevant procedures and criteria set out in circulars from the Department. The Department also provides each ETB with an administrative and maintenance staffing allocation and an associated pay budget to support its individual ETB schools and head office. It is the responsibility of each ETB to recruit and manage staffing levels within this allocation, including the assignment of such staff to the different functional areas of the ETB in accordance with the needs and priorities of the organisation. In line with the general position across the public sector, every ETB must operate within overall approved staffing and pay budgets for its administrative and maintenance staff. ETBs have discretion to temporarily employ a substitute for existing ancillary staff in schools who are temporarily absent due to sick leave and so on, where the temporary absence would otherwise result in either no secretary, no caretaker or no cleaner being in the school on the days in question, and where the ETB can fund the temporary employment of the substitute from its existing pay budget for non-teaching staff.
However, ETBs are required to seek prior approval from the Department for new posts or to replace existing sanctioned administrative and maintenance posts on a temporary or permanent basis. In considering such requests, the Department will consider factors such as the particular circumstances and needs arising for the ETB concerned, and will also have regard to the affordability of the post, or replacement post where applicable, within the administrative and maintenance pay budget of the ETB itself, and within the relevant pay budget for the ETB sector as a whole. I can confirm that over recent years the Department has, as resources permitted, granted a significant number of additional administrative and maintenance posts to the ETB sector. In the period since 2015, the Department has increased the number of approved posts in head offices by 29% across all sectors. I can also confirm that the vast majority of replacement head office administrative posts sought by ETBs are granted by the Department. For example, since 2017, 85% of such requests have been granted. The Department remains fully committed to supporting ETBs and will continue to work closely with individual ETBs and with the sector collectively to ensure they are adequately resourced to deliver their very important work.
I thank the Minister of State for the response from the Department. The Department states in the response that in the period since 2015, it has increased the number of approved posts in head offices by 29% across the sector. Of course that is because of the lifting of the moratorium so they are getting back to where they were. The point is that the ETBs had this autonomy and independence in the past. It was taken away from them during the financial crisis and the moratorium, and they wish to see it relaxed and to get it back. Why is it necessary for an ETB to have to go to the Department for permission to replace somebody going on maternity leave or on a career break or somebody who is out with a serious illness? That is the question that has not been answered in the Department's reply. Could I ask the Minister of State to go back to the Minister for Education to get those questions answered in relation to restoring the autonomy that the ETBs once had?
My understanding is that the ETBs, and I was a board member of the Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ETB in the past, have autonomy and independence in hiring staff and choosing how they spend their staff budget and so on. The problem arises when they are hiring a replacement staff member whose pay is additional to the budget that has already been allocated. As the Senator is shaking his head, I may have that wrong.
That is not what we are being told.
When somebody is on long-term sick leave, for example, and an additional person needs to be hired, there is an increase in the budget costs and the ETB is required to go back to the Department to seek sanction. The Department's view on this is that it is approving 85% of applications in that situation. I suppose the intention is for the ETBs to live within their budgets, not to exceed the amounts of money allocated in the budget at the start of the year, and to stay within the fiscal prudence envelope. I can pass on Senator Kyne's concerns to the Minister and he can ask me outside this forum if he has any clarifications he wishes to put to me.
Disability Services
I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, for joining us.
I welcome the Minister of State. I hope she can catch her breath now.
In August, it was announced that a new multidisciplinary primary care assessment hub for children under the progressing disability services, PDS, programme was to open in Castleknock. That is very good news and is much welcomed. Obviously, it has prompted a lot more communication from parents to me about the children's disability network team, CDNT, waiting list in the area. I will give an overview of some examples I have received.
I have been contacted by a parent whose son is heading into secondary school. He has had one stage 1 desk-based interview. He has severe hearing loss, dyspraxia and, potentially, autism. His waiting time is 37 months for a stage 2 assessment of need clinical assessment.
I have been told about an eight-year-old who has been on the waiting list for an assessment of need for a year. This child, who has been referred to primary care services, is on a waiting list for child psychology but no time period has been indicated, and is facing a two-year wait for occupational therapy. This is in the Dublin 15 area.
Another parent has told me that since the switch to the CDNT system, in one year their child has seen the speech and language therapist, SLT, four times; the occupational therapist, OT, three times; and the physiotherapist twice. The SLT has left and there is no-one to replace her. Under the early intervention team, EIT, her son had one-to-one therapy at least every second week. That is in Blakestown.
In relation to transfers from the early intervention team in Blanchardstown, it seems that one person is manning the emails and the phones. I have been told by a few parents that they get the same text in response to emails. It reads:
We have received waiting lists of children from various services, HSE, CRC, DOC, school-age team and Beechpark Services. [They have amalgamated those multiple lists and are afraid to say that the waiting list is long.] The original date of referral for your child will be honoured. Currently I am unable to give you a timeframe when they will be seen by the team.
Another email said that the current waiting time is three years, and another said it is in excess of three years.
I would like to quote from correspondence from another parent:
When we were with early intervention we could access an OT, SLT and psychologist. They answered their phones and if they could not they would get back to you within 24 hours. On EIT we had regular phone support services with OT, psychologists, SLT, even though no diagnosis his needs were addressed and I felt empowered.
The question that she wants answered is: are they still doing that?
I am hoping the Minister of State can give me some clarity around the transfer to the EIT system and the CDNT system, with reference to the waiting lists for these parents and what is actually happening behind the scenes.
They feel their basic needs are not being met. I know the Minister of State hears this all the time and is committed to changing it but the children and their families are exhausted.
This issue boils down to resources. Where are we with resources for CHO 9? Has there been a change to the HSE national panel of recruitment? I am consistently asked by psychologists if that issue is being addressed. These families are paying privately and they come from all walks of life and have different experiences and socioeconomic backgrounds. One family informed me their child will soon be seen because the HSE has outsourced the multidisciplinary assessment to a private company. Is that now happening?
I thank Senator Currie for giving me the opportunity to discuss CHO 9. I will just reverse a little, if the Senator does not mind. When we started the assessments of need in October 2020 one of our largest lists in the entire country was in CHO 9. This meant it was one of the last lists to be completed at that point in time. We were completing the assessment of need process, which was the old assessment of need rather than a preliminary team assessment or anything like that, and we got through it all. The Senator is right that we faltered at the end. We got stuck in approximately 33 cases due to the psychology and complexity involved in them. However, we got all the lists cleared.
While we were doing those assessments of need, the reform of progressing disabilities took place. This was challenging in the Senator's area for the simple reason that we pulled it all apart. The parents are probably telling the Senator that it was all pulled apart. Various teams were put in place. St. Michael's House, the Central Remedial Clinic, CRC, Avista and the HSE were the teams left in charge of the Senator's area.
There is no denying that since then, retention and recruitment in the area of children's disabilities has been incredibly difficult, particularly in Dublin. To that end, I compliment St. Michael's House, Avista and the CRC because they have addressed the issue. They are making their own arrangements for recruitment and have moved ahead of where we were on the PDS roadmap. They could not wait for the central office of the HSE to make a decision. Supported by Olive Hanley, they decided, because they were in a crisis, to start their international recruitment. They set a target to fill 96 posts across all the various levels, specifically speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and psychology. They are being supported by the HSE in that intensive recruitment drive, which has been ongoing since June. I see the fruits of it coming through in the teams.
This is of little comfort for the families who have emailed Senator Currie asking her specific questions. On the question as to whether early intervention is still happening, the answer is "No" because they are now all part of one team. Early intervention teams used to be a separate piece but are now part of the wider CDNT team. However, the skill set is still there and early intervention is still the priority. It was the one piece of the jigsaw that worked very well in the HSE and the various organisations. While people may not have got an assessment, they got the early intervention and were listened to and communicated with.
A lot of work is taking place, as the Senator has said, in providing responses by email or telephone and telling parents when they can expect to get a call back and that they have not been forgotten about. In last year's budget, money was set aside to ensure every single CDNT team had proper administration to answer emails and phone calls. Those administrative positions are being filled or have been filled in the Senator's area to support the teams. We do not want clinicians to be answering phones or writing emails. We want them to be face-to-face with children. To be fair, from what I can see on the ground, this is turning around. CHO 9 has been the most challenging of all the CHOs but they are working together as a collective rather than in isolation. It is not a matter of, for example, Blakestown being in one team and another area having another team. They are sharing resources and skill sets and the recruitment drive in CHO 9. I can see that transitioning down.
To be honest with the Senator, I get uncomfortable when someone is told it will be three years before someone is seen. The teams cannot say it will be three years for the simple reason that we are working with teams that are 74% populated. Some of the teams in the Senator's area had recruitment figures as low as 50%. That is starting to increase slowly but surely. If that figure was to come down to what I could identify as an acceptable level of clinical risk, we would be in a comfortable position. There is a challenge regarding the 96 posts. The target is to fill them within eight months and we are getting through them by working together and knowing what disciplines are needed from one team to the other. The teams have taken ownership of this and I and the HSE are supporting them with whatever they need. Senior managers in Avista, CRC and St. Michael's House have been able to recruit and I can see the difference this has made. This is of little comfort to the parent the Senator quoted but in six months' time, we will have a pathway towards good skill sets. I will discuss this with the Senator shortly.
I would like to see the progress the Minister of State is seeing. I do not know how I will get to see that by tabling a parliamentary question to the Minister every month. I need to see it so that I can tell the parents who are in contact with me. The communications they are receiving indicate it will be three years. They are not getting the communication they used to have and need and want. The Minister of State spoke of targets of eight months and six months and I will hold her to those.
I will ask her again about the panel of recruitment. How does that fit into what is happening? What is happening as regards the therapists who were to be brought back into special schools? I have heard there has been an intervention by Fórsa in that regard and we are not seeing those therapists back in the schools. Will the Minister of State comment on that? Is recruitment for those specific roles necessary? Is that the approach that will be taken or will these therapists come from the CDNTs?
The other evening I referred in my speech to Fórsa. It is amazing what happens on the floor of the Dáil because since Tuesday evening, the HSE and Fórsa have met twice and I hear that progress is being made. I also spoke to John Kearney of the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, this morning and I will issue communications to all the special schools. I am waiting for the head of disabilities, Bernard O'Regan, to tell me the outcome of this. I assume everybody wants to see children getting an intervention and being supported. I have no doubt the union wants that as well. I do not want to assume but I am hopeful a common sense approach will be taken and we will see therapists going into the schools. I have allocated €13.5 million to recruit 133 staff to go back on to the teams. While we are taking them from the teams, they are still part of the team and just happen to be spending a certain number of hours supporting the school side.
We have blown the panels open completely because I needed to get as many people as possible into the CDNT teams to support the schools. We abandoned the panels.
To be fair to Damien McCallion in the HSE, he went in there and said they had to tear it apart and blow it open to ensure that we can get everybody off panels and into either the CDNTs or back into the schools. I think I have answered both questions.
Health Services
I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am speaking today on behalf of families in County Longford, and indeed, all the families that have been affected by cancer. I want to take this opportunity to compliment everyone involved in Longford Hospice Homecare and all the community nurses who are based in Longford. Longford Hospice Homecare has been operating in my county for all of my lifetime. A tremendous amount of work and fundraising has been done. I want to compliment the work the organisation does.
The issue I am raising today is one that I raised 12 months ago. It concerns the need for additional palliative care beds at St. Joseph's Care Centre. A massive redevelopment was announced by the former Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, a number of years ago, with over €5 million in funding and planning processes and discussions. We were told that there would be a minimum of two palliative beds, yet we still only have one. I wrote to the HSE and got a letter back basically saying that any decision to designate one or more beds would have to be made by the HSE at a national level, and any commitment to increasing the number of palliative care support beds at the expense of long-stay beds would have to be accompanied by an appropriate budget allocation to compensate for the fair deal income reduction in order to maintain services for current and future residents. I do not think that is acceptable.
I have submitted evidence and have written to the HSE regarding getting more updated figures for the last number of months. I was given a figure of 64% bed capacity in 2021, but it was actually higher. We have seen that in recent weeks €20 million has been allocated to a 20-bed unit in Tullamore to cover the midlands area, but the reality is that we still have just one palliative care bed in St. Joseph's. There are numerous families with loved ones who are spending their last days in acute hospital settings or in palliative care outside their county and not close to home. That is not fair on the families and it is not acceptable. There are areas within the campus in Longford where extra beds could be facilitated. A gentleman that I knew all my life passed away in the last 24 hours. God rest him. He was unable to access a palliative care bed in Longford because there were none available. This needs to be addressed. It is not acceptable. We want changes made.
My condolences to the family of the individual the Senator mentioned. The Minister of State has four minutes to reply.
I, too, want to be associated with the condolences expressed.
I am taking this matter today on behalf of the Minister for Health. I would like to thank Senator Carrigy for raising this important issue. The Government is strongly committed to providing high-quality, evidence-based palliative care in Ireland. The Department of Health, in line with the national palliative care policy of 2001, is committed to furthering the development of palliative care across the country, ensuring a seamless pathway for patients who need palliative care across inpatient, home care, nursing home and day care services. St. Joseph's Care Centre, Longford, provides 24-hour nursing care for up to 68 residents in an invaluable service that is embedded in the community. There are planned refurbishment works for St. Joseph's Care Centre in Longford and the HSE is committed to providing a second palliative care support bed when works are complete. The HSE has held meetings with the Longford hospice committee and will continue to do so to review the plans to achieve the optimum location to facilitate the second palliative care support bed. Currently, the HSE in the region also has a consultant-led specialist palliative care team that supports individuals in their homes. It engages with community nursing staff and midland regional hospital to support patients and families.
In September 2022, the Taoiseach announced capital funding of €20 million to progress the development of a 20-bed specialist palliative care unit in the midlands. The announcement of this funding is a significant milestone for palliative care in the midlands and will deliver on the programme for Government commitment to progress plans for a specialist palliative unit in the midlands. The new hospice will be co-located at the midland regional hospital and will provide a hub for the provision of specialist palliative care services across the midlands, including day care, outpatient and inpatient community services.
In line with the programme for Government, the extensive refurbishment of St. Joseph's Care Centre in Longford aims to prioritise and protect the most vulnerable. The HSE has committed to providing a second palliative care support bed at the site when works are complete and is engaging with Longford hospice committee about the plans. This Government will continue to work with local organisations to ensure that people with life-limiting conditions across the country receive the level of palliative care they require.
In the time that I have left, I wish to state that while the response is a very comprehensive answer in respect of the midlands, it does not answer the Senator's specific question about beds in Longford. I propose to set up a meeting between the Senator, his colleagues, the Minister for Health and representatives of the HSE locally to discuss the timeline and the funding, and where we are with the delivery of a second palliative care bed for the Longford region.
I thank the Minister of State for her response, which comprehensively states that we are going to have a second palliative bed. It is something that we have been looking for for many years. I thank the Minister of State for her proposal to set up a meeting. I will take her up on the offer to attend the meeting with my colleague, Councillor Peggy Nolan, who the Minister of State knows well, who has fought the fight for many years to ensure that we maintain and improve the services that we have in Longford, and in St. Joseph's Care Centre in particular, where there is an excellent staff. I know, from personal experience, of the work they do there.
The Minister of State mentioned evidence-based palliative care. I am delighted that the evidence that we submitted last year proved that the need was there, when we were told that it was not. The need is there. I ask that the situation is monitored continuously and that where there is additional need, it be met through the provision of additional beds. That must be guaranteed. I thank the Minister of State for her commitment and the offer to set up a meeting with the Minister for Health. I will take her up on that offer.
To sum up, the Government is committed to support people in all regions, but particularly the hospice and palliative care community. We need to take an evidence-based approach. Where there is evidence, we must look at it, take it on board and prioritise it. I look forward to setting up the meeting with the Minister, the Senator and his colleagues.
Cuireadh an Seanad ar fionraí ar 11.17 a.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 12 noon.
Sitting suspended at 11.17 a.m. and resumed at 12 noon.