Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 3 Apr 2008

Vol. 651 No. 1

Adjournment Debate.

Care of the Elderly.

Deputy Mary Upton

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter, which relates to the withdrawal of respite care from patients in the Cherry Orchard Hospital in Ballyfermot, which is a very retrograde step. A number of constituents have contacted me on the matter. The rollover respite is being cut from May. The 24 places that were available will be cut back to 12. There is a fear that the other respite that is available might also be cut. Everything about this flies in the face of common sense. If respite is not available a number of elderly people will end up in accident and emergency units and ultimately in acute beds in hospitals thereby taking up more valuable space and time. As it is, families and carers are just about able to manage. To a certain extent their sanity depends on the availability of this respite. One of my constituents cares for her 84 year old mother who has Alzheimer's disease. She said it is like minding a baby 24 hours a day seven days a week. The only break she gets is through the respite that is available.

In 2007 the Cherry Orchard Hospital opened two new respite wards which were very welcome. However, that facility has now been cut in half which flies in the face of common sense. This facility that had been expanded with all the capital expense of providing additional beds and now it does not have the backup to provide the respite. I have written to the general manager and received a reply indicating that it would review it based on budgetary concerns etc. The budget should be made available to provide this service for the patients in Cherry Orchard. In addition to the cutting of the respite beds, which is the primary concern, home help is also being cut so it is a double whammy and people are being hit twice. I ask the Minister to review the situation regarding the Cherry Orchard Hospital.

Deputy Joanna Tuffy

In my constituency the same issue has arisen because some of my constituents also avail of respite care in Cherry Orchard Hospital. For example, a constituent contacted me regarding his 91 year old father, who lives with the family of one of his children and is cared for on a full-time basis. He is extremely feeble and needs full-time care. Members of the family need to carry him up and down the stairs each day. The one lifesaver for the family has been that every few weeks they get a few days respite care in Cherry Orchard Hospital. They recently got a phone call from the HSE advising that this service would be discontinued from the end of May until there is a change regarding the budget.

A recent report in The Irish Times indicated that 24 families are similarly affected. As Deputy Upton has said the people affected by this have very high needs and are extremely vulnerable. They could end up in long-term hospital care if something goes wrong. It is putting severe strain on their families who have other issues to deal with. The family I am talking about has other family members who are sick and the issue is causing them considerable stress. They are willing to care for their parent at home and are saving the State considerable money — probably at least €1,000 per week. This and other cutbacks by the HSE are hitting the most vulnerable people of all. It is vital for the Minister to make alternative arrangements or else ensure the 12 beds in Cherry Orchard Hospital are immediately reopened.

Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (Deputy Pat Carey)

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. I thank the Deputies for raising the issue as it provides me with an opportunity to reaffirm the Government's commitment to services for older people generally and, in particular, the important area of providing day and respite care.

Government policy on older people is to support people to live in dignity and independence in their own homes and communities for as long as possible. Where this is not feasible, the health service supports access to quality long-term residential care where this is appropriate. This policy approach is renewed and developed in the latest partnership agreement, Towards 2016.

The Government's objective of continued development of community-based services for older persons is reflected in the funding given to the system in recent times. In the budgets of 2006 and 2007, more than €400 million was provided to enhance service developments across the sector, of which just over €190 million was for community-based services over these two years.

Arising from the budget of 2008, a full-year package of €22 million has been allocated for new services in the area of older people. This gives a total of more than €422 million for new services for older people over the last three years. These measures have been designed to both enhance existing services that the Government had already put in place and to widen the range of services available to older people.

In this context, over €16 million has been provided in the last three years for new day and respite care services. The recent budget will allow an additional 1,245 clients nationally to avail of new respite places and brings the total projected day care provision to approximately 21,300 places by the end of this year.

The HSE is committed, through the national service plan 2008, to delivering services within its Vote provided by the Oireachtas. It will manage the provision of respite care beds at Cherry Orchard within this context, while also recognising the priority the Government and the Executive have given to services for older people.

There is no doubt that demand can at times exceed service resources and that this problem can manifest itself at local level such as the particular pressures being experienced at Cherry Orchard. However, it is a matter for the HSE to deliver services both nationally and locally within its budget and overall health policy priorities. I understand that, in this particular case, the executive will continue to keep the matter under close review.

Social Welfare Benefits.

Deputy Bernard J. Durkan

I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for allowing me the opportunity to raise this issue, which I have raised previously by way of parliamentary question and on the Adjournment but it has not been resolved as of yet. This relates to a young woman who arrived in this country some years ago, with her husband, on foot of a work permit. Unfortunately, over the years her circumstances have changed dramatically for the worse whereby she now finds herself, after a very acrimonious separation procedure, separated, alone and homeless.

Again and again, the response I receive to queries regarding rent support is that she previously made an application which was refused by the HSE but she did not appeal. What are the chances of her appeal being successful? The Acting Chairman, Deputy Wall, will be familiar with the HSE appeals process relating to supplementary allowances. I am quite sure that the Minister of State, Deputy Carey, is also familiar with the procedure. I am very familiar with it, from my days in the former health board and I have yet to find a person who was successful in his or her appeal. I have never met even one such person. It is said that up to 20% of appeals are successful but unfortunately I am still waiting to meet the first person whose appeal was successful.

Ironically, a parliamentary question is regarded by the Department of Social and Family Affairs and by the HSE, in such circumstances, as equal to an appeal. A Dáil question triggers an appeal and the case is automatically examined. One way or another, the person concerned has had growing rent arrears for the past six months and nothing has been paid. The only help she has received was from the local branch of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which is adamant that this is a most pressing and urgent case that requires assistance.

The other excuse that has been used to refuse rent supplement is that the local authority has not ratified her need for rehousing. Why has it not done so? The reason given is that she does not have stamp four status. What a load of codswallop. I have never heard anything like it in my life. The person is homeless. She has two children who are attending local schools, is being supported by voluntary organisations and was previously in receipt of rent support from the HSE at a different address. When she moved to her current address, the community welfare officer in that area obviously had a different view of the case. While I do not want to create problems for individual officers outside this House I wish to make it quite clear that it is not acceptable that individuals make decisions which are particularly punitive and impact in the way that this decision has impacted on the woman in question, as of now.

I can anticipate the Minister of State's reply and could write the script for him. Indeed, he knows I could write the script for him, before he ever reads it. As a practising politician himself, Deputy Carey will understand the frustration of Members of the House in situations such as this. I ask him to reach down through the system and find out the individual or the blockage that is causing the problem and resolve it. This issue is not going to go away and I have every intention of raising it again and, if necessary, to raise a complaint about the way it has been handled by the individual officer concerned. I will not accept it. There is further information available which I do not wish to put on the record of the House at this particular time, but I will do so in the future if I have to. I wish to make that quite clear. I will leave it to the Minister of State to use his good judgment, courage and initiative to take this problem by the scruff of the neck and resolve it.

Deputy Pat Carey

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Martin Cullen.

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on the Minister's behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to eligible tenants living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. Eligibility is in general confined to those who are in receipt of a social welfare or HSE payment. There are currently over 61,000 tenants benefiting from assistance under the rent supplement scheme. In order to qualify for a rent supplement a person must be a bona fide tenant; satisfy the Health Service Executive that he or she has a housing need which he or she cannot meet from his or her own resources; apply to the local housing authority for an assessment of housing needs if requested to do so by the Health Service Executive; be habitually resident in the State; and satisfy the general conditions of entitlement to supplementary welfare allowance.

Where a person is referred to a housing authority by the HSE, the housing authority is asked to determine if the person has a housing need and to make a recommendation accordingly. When the housing authority has completed the assessment for rent supplement purposes, it notifies the local community welfare officer of the outcome as soon as possible.

The Health Service Executive has advised that rent supplement was paid for the period December 2004 to November 2005 in respect of the household of which the person concerned was a member. Following separation from her husband, the Health Service Executive issued an exceptional needs payment of €847 in August 2006 to the person concerned to assist with the payment of rent arrears. This payment was issued pending verification of a number of issues that would have a bearing on her rent supplement entitlement.

The executive has advised that the person concerned first submitted an application for rent supplement in her own right in respect of her previous residence in November 2006. The person concerned was advised in writing on 14 December 2006 of the executive's decision to refuse payment of rent supplement on the grounds that the local housing authority considered that she did not have a housing need in accordance with section 9 of the Housing Act 1988.

The executive has further advised that on 28 February 2008, it exercised its discretion and issued an exceptional needs payment of €5,052 directly to the landlord of the previous address of the person concerned in respect of the months from April 2007 to October 2007. The executive has advised that the payment was issued in respect of arrears of rent due and was issued without prejudice to the status of the rent supplement entitlement of the person concerned.

The executive has advised that it has not received a formal application for rent supplement from the person concerned in respect of her current residence. It has further advised that it has not received an appeal from the person concerned against the decision not to award a rent supplement in respect of the previous residence.

It is open to the person concerned to appeal any decision made by a community welfare officer in respect of her rent supplement entitlement. The person concerned should make a formal application for rent supplement in respect of her current residence so that a decision on her entitlement can be formally determined.

Deputy Bernard J. Durkan

She has done that already.

Deputy Pat Carey

As one practising politician speaking to another, I understand the Deputy's frustration with the system. I will undertake to discuss the matter with the Minister.

Deputy Bernard J. Durkan

I thank the Minister of State for that undertaking, which I greatly appreciate.

Youth Services.

Deputy Thomas P. Broughan

Kilbarrack Foxfield St. John Parish is one of two parishes of the historic district of Kilbarrack in the centre of my constituency. Over 25 years ago the then President Erskine Childers laid the foundation stone for the Kilbarrack Foxfield community centre on Greendale Road and a number of very committed local groups amalgamated to form the Kilbarrack and District Community Association, KADCA, to successfully run the centre in the intervening quarter of a century. Over that long period, there have been major changes in Kilbarrack but there has always been an outstanding need for the provision of recreation and sport for the young people of the parish. Our great GAA club, Naomh Barróg, and the local football club, Kilbarrack United, have performed Trojan work over the years for the youth of the area but it is only in very recent years that both these fine clubs have received significant State support.

The Kilbarrack Community Programme was established in the early 1990s when a group of local community activists came together to form the Kilbarrack Community Families Against Drugs, which vigorously opposed the sale of heroin in the area by criminal elements. With the help of the Eastern Health Board, FÁS and the then Minister of State, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, a Kilbarrack after care community programme was developed from May 1996 and finally established in later 1998. In January 2001, at the request of its clients, the programme's name was changed to the current Kilbarrack Coast Community Programme, KCCP. Over the past decade, KCCP has provided rehabilitation, care and training to young citizens recovering from drug misuse and addiction. As a strong deterrence to prevent youngsters becoming involved in or addicted to drugs, KCCP established a vibrant youth programme, Youth Matters, eight years ago. This body provides sporting recreational and educational activities for the nine to 18 year old age group. From its beginning, KCCP has also had an active parents support group to provide counselling and support to the parents of drug misusers.

Over the past few years, KCCP has worked closely with the Kilbarrack Foxfield regeneration campaign in its aim to transform the parish area by planning to build a new youth and community resource centre. It is envisaged approximately one third of the area of the centre will be given over to KCCP's core programmes to eliminate drug misuse in our community. Recently, I met a widely representative local committee, elected after a well attended public meeting last October, who wished to report to Oireachtas colleagues, the HSE and myself on the campaign for the new youth and recreation centre. One of the committee members, Superintendent Michael Finn, a distinguished former garda who has given more than 12 years voluntary service to the Kilbarrack community, outlined how 1,500 households in the parish had been contacted and indicated support for the projects and how the wonderful Le Chéile community and youth building in Donnycarney might be used as a model for Kilbarrack Foxfield. Other committee members spoke of meetings with Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin, Anne Carter, the Minister of State — I commend for his interest in this matter — and the Dublin North East drugs task force and the national drugs strategy team, where detailed presentations were made.

During the previous Dáil, the then Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, and his senior civil servant, Mr. Padraig Stanley, investigated the strong case for the new centre made by KCCP and a wide variety of local sporting and social clubs. The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs asked that a structure be developed to show the various community and recreational bodies in Kilbarrack Foxfield were prepared to work together to develop a facility under community control, open to all sections of the community. I strongly support that aim. This process is well advanced and the ball is, therefore, in the Minister of State's court. With goodwill all around and support throughout Kilbarrack Foxfield and the broader Kilbarrack area, the Minister of State and his funding agencies should begin detailed final planning and preparation for tendering on a greatly needed new youth and community building for Kilbarrack Foxfield St. John, all its citizens and, especially, the children, teenagers and young adults. The Minister of State is welcome in Kilbarrack any time.

Deputy Pat Carey

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter, with which I am becoming more familiar. I also thank him for the initiatives he has taken together with Councillor Carter and the Lord Mayor of Dublin. This issue has proved difficult to resolve for a long time. I am extremely anxious to engage with the group over the next number of weeks to reach a conclusion because the next round of applications for funding under the young people's facilities and services fund is due. This is the vehicle through which projects such as this can be delivered. I am well aware of the needs of Kilbarrack because I was involved in youth work in the area many years ago. It is a vibrant community. This issue was divisive previously but a great deal of common ground has been found and I will undertake with my officials to engage with the Deputy over the next two weeks in order that we can come to a solution to the problem.

As the Deputy said, the Le Chéile project in Donnycarney could be used as a model and it is probably what Kilbarrack needs. Now that we are embarking on the next phase of the national drugs strategy, which is public consultation, the issues of drug misuse and polydrug use are as important to be addressed in Kilbarrack as everywhere else. We must also invest in prevention and harm reduction because prevention is better than cure. Earlier I attended the launch of an awareness programme by the Merchants Quay Project together with Deputies Rabbitte, Ó Snodaigh and a number of others, which focuses on needle exchange and harm reduction. Every community must come to grips with the challenge it faces and Kilbarrack has done its share in that regard. I will communicate with Deputy Broughan in the coming week and I undertake to sit down with my officials to find a resolution to this pressing issue.

Schools Building Projects.

Deputy Leo Varadkar

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this issue. Everyone who follows the news will be familiar with the problems being experienced in rapidly developing parts of Dublin and other cities where the provision of school facilities has fallen behind the rapid increase in population. Fortunately, the position is better this year. Following the crisis that occurred last year, which resulted in the Department setting up emergency schools during the summer, action was taken in recent months. As a result of this and the decisions to establish one or two new schools in Dublin 15 while expanding existing schools, we will not experience the problems we had in the past.

The difficulty to which I refer concerns three schools — Castleknock community college, the only non-fee paying school in Castleknock, which has a population of 40,000; St. Mochta's national school in Clonsilla; and St. Brigid's national school, Beech Park Castleknock. The three schools were approached by the Department of Education and Science to expand. St. Mochta's was asked to accept a fourth stream and the community college was asked to increase its intake to 210 students per year. Each school agreed to do so. In return, they were promised new school buildings with modern classrooms to facilitate the expansion with two schools promised sports halls. However, the Department has not honoured its commitment and the schools have been informed they cannot apply for planning permission or even to go to architectural stage in one case.

That is a serious breach of faith on the part of the Department, which has a problem with schools refusing to expand. The schools to which I refer responded to the Department's need and went along with its request but they have been shafted for reasons that are unclear to them and myself. I am interested in the Minister of State's response. If he has influence with the line Minister in this regard, I appeal to him to put pressure on the Department to ensure these projects proceed because if they do not, the message will be sent to other schools that if they agree to a request by the Department to expand, they cannot rely on the commitment and guarantees given in return. That will have knock-on effects in other constituencies.

Deputy Pat Carey

I am taking this motion on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Hanafin. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and for giving me the opportunity of outlining to the House the actions being taken by the Department of Education and Science to address the school accommodation needs in the Dublin 15 area. I am conscious that the Dublin 15 area, as a whole, is one of the most rapidly developing areas in the country, as Deputy Varadkar stated, and, as a result, there has been a marked increase in the demand for primary school places.

The Department conducted a survey of all primary schools in Dublin 15 to determine the number of junior infants who enrolled in September 2006 and 2007. This survey indicated considerable numbers of children applied to enrol in more than one school. While this is understandable from parents' point of view, it also has the result of inflating the number of children apparently seeking places. Notwithstanding this, the Department of Education and Science is aware of the accommodation demands for September and is addressing this requirement. I assure the Deputy that all options will be considered to ensure that there are enough school places in September.

The Deputy will be aware that the programme for Government included a commitment to establish a developing areas unit in the Department of Education and Science, dedicated solely to progressing school planning in rapidly developing areas, including Dublin 15, building on improvements that have been made in recent years.

The Department is taking a number of measures to increase the capacity of existing schools in the area concerned with the development of new schools to meet this growing demand. All building projects arising from these are awarded a band 1 priority rating under the Department's prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects to ensure that they are delivered as expeditiously as possible.

The position on recent and ongoing developments in the provision of school accommodation in the Dublin 15 area is as follows. A new 16 classroom school for Mary Mother of Hope national school in Littlepace opened in September 2007. In addition, a new school for Castaheany Educate Together is on schedule to open for September 2008 and a new school for St. Benedict's national school is set to follow shortly thereafter. Extension projects for primary schools in Castleknock, Blanchardstown and Corduff are also being progressed. In the Diswellstown area, St. Patrick's national school moved into a new 24-classroom school last year. This will facilitate an annual three-stream intake.

A site is being secured for a new permanent school building for Tyrrelstown Educate Together national school and Mulhuddart national school and these buildings will be progressed. A new State model community national school, under the patronage of County Dublin Vocational Education Committee, is to be piloted in Phibblestown from September 2008. This will initially provide accommodation for an eight-classroom school, to be expanded to 24 classrooms as need is assessed.

With regard to the specific schools to which the Deputy refers, the current position is as follows. Castleknock community school is at stage 3 of early architectural planning. The stage 3 submission has been received and reviewed by the Department's technical staff and is awaiting approval. As soon as approval is received for this stage, the Department will liaise with the school authorities. St. Brigid's national school, Castleknock, is at stage 1 of early architectural planning. The Department's technical staff requested additional information on the stage 1 submission and this information is being reviewed. A report on the stage 1 submission will issue as soon as possible.

St. Mochta's national school was expanded in 2006 to cater for an annual four-stream intake. The extension to cater for this development has been progressed to architectural planning and a project supervisor for the design process has been appointed. The appointment of a design team will be progressed as soon as possible. All three school projects are being progressed without delay.

Due to the level of demand emanating from the Dublin 15 area, the need to make further provision at primary level in addition to that outlined above is being kept under continuous review by the Department. I am confident that the measures outlined will assist in alleviating the immediate demand for pupil places in the area and I thank Deputy Varadkar for allowing me the opportunity to outline the Department's position on school provision in this area.

The Dáil adjourned at 5.05 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 8 April 2008.