Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 17 Jul 2012

Vol. 773 No. 1

Topical Issue Debate

Departmental Bodies

Deputy Patrick O’Donovan

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter. It might not be one that affects constituencies up and down the country, but it is one that was brought to my attention in the recent past by a number of nursery and garden centre owners, namely, the need for the establishment of a national horticultural strategy to drive the potential of the sector. I welcome the presence of the Minister of State, Deputy Shane McEntee, and thank him for and compliment him on the work he has done so far. He might take on board the need for engagement with all stakeholders in the horticulture sector, including garden centre and nursery owners, those responsible for training graduates and SOLAS which is in the throes of revamping the old community employment and training initiatives. In the recent past, having regard to the level of construction that took place, both in Ireland and our nearest neighbour, the sector experienced large growth in numbers employed in it.

The sector is being promoted by Bord Bia. It struck me and those working in the sector that, first and foremost, the remit of Bord Bia should be the promotion of Irish food, in respect of which it is doing a good job. There is a danger, however, that the sector will be subsumed into it and, perhaps, have a less important place than it would enjoy if there was a board or a subsidiary of it with its own label and unique identity. There is a difference between the approaches taken in Britain and Ireland to garnering the potential of the sector. One need only look at the approach of the BBC in promoting both the gardening and the horticulture sectors as a means to encourage people to engage in these activities.

I would like the Minister to engage with the local authorities and State agencies which in many cases have a hefty budget for the procurement of horticultural services and plants and shrubs from nurseries. There is a concern that these services are not being put out to tender by local authorities and State agencies and that small nurseries and garden centres are not being given an opportunity to offer their material to these outlets and promote their stock. The nursery owners and garden centre operators whom I met recently are also concerned about the standards of training and certification for college graduates. They would like to see a comparative study being carried out of the standards and courses on offer in Ireland versus those on offer in our nearest neighbour, the United Kingdom. There is obviously a needs for a closer relationship between the sector and the colleges to ensure, first, that the right calibre of person is steered in the direction of the sector and, second, that the standard reached reflects the needs of the sector. The nursery owners and garden centre operators to whom I spoke are not concerned that there is a shortage of graduates available but that their skills base does not reflect the needs of the modern sector.

Acting Chairman (Deputy Olivia Mitchell)

The Deputy's time is up.

Deputy Patrick O’Donovan

I welcome the opportunity to raise this issue which is not one that affects every constituency, but it is one, as I am sure the Minister of State will agree, which has considerable potential.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Deputy Shane McEntee)

I thank the Deputy most sincerely for raising this significant issue. It concerns a sector which has considerable potential for growth, but much must happen and it must start with the producers themselves.

On a number of occasions, I have got them together to try to become one unit but they have failed to do that and have continued to work individually.

I know a lot of money and help has been invested through Bord Bia. The one point that really annoys me about the whole horticultural industry is the manner in which it allows itself to be treated by the supermarkets, whether it be in regard to plants or food, where they use Irish product as a loss leader. I have tried to address this on several occasions, but with no great success. We have met all the companies and, some six or eight months ago, I had all of the different people involved in the horticulture industry, in particular the nurseries, around the table to try to draw up a plan. I left it up to them to come back to me with a plan on how they were going to operate as one, as they do in England, but they have not done that.

As the Deputy rightly said, while the industry is going through a bad time at present, there is great potential, not only for the home market. I do not know how many lorry loads of plants and shrubs come into supermarkets in Ireland daily. For the first time, however, through a grant aid system we put in place, a nursery is this year being given the opportunity to supply one of our supermarkets, and I hope many more will follow. The producers have much to do themselves. They went through a good time during the Celtic tiger period and did not care about anybody. Now, they have left themselves with an awful lot of large borrowings. They have to come together. I am glad the Deputy has raised the issue.

Production of fruit and vegetables is a significant entity within the overall agricultural industry, making an important economic contribution in terms of supplying the domestic market, employment and foreign trade. The horticulture and potato sectors contributed approximately €400 million to farm output in 2011 and this includes non-food horticultural crops such as plants and nursery stock. It is estimated that Ireland is 24% self-sufficient in fruit and 85% self-sufficient in vegetables, including potatoes, although these estimates relate only to produce that can be grown domestically.

The horticulture sector has performed well over the past decade and has grown to be a significant entity within the overall agricultural industry. The area and proportion of production under protection from the weather has increased significantly. Improvements in the quality and presentation of Irish produce over the past decade have also been significant. Quality of output, hygiene and food safety concerns have become critical issues for the sector. The industry is labour intensive, employing approximately 18,500 across the food and non-food areas, and employment is broadly based across the country.

The sector continues to have considerable potential for further development but is experiencing strong competitive pressures, particularly from the highly concentrated retail market and competitively priced imports. The multiples have enormous bargaining power in that they prefer to be supplied from one or two sources and they exert unrelenting pressure on producers to drive down prices. This pressure, coupled with ever-increasing input costs, particularly the costs of energy and labour, has resulted in many producers leaving the sector. Scale has become a significant prerequisite for success.

Following the publication of the Harvest 2020 report in June 2010, the then Minister of State with responsibility for horticulture at the then Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food established the horticulture action group in December 2010 to oversee the implementation of the relevant recommendations relating to horticulture in the report. The membership of the group consisted of eight people who represented the various sectors of the horticulture industry. They comprised a nursery stock producer, a horticulture wholesaler and protected crop producer, a field vegetable producer, a mushroom producer, a potato producer and representatives of Teagasc, An Bord Bia and the then Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

The group met on a number of occasions and submitted a detailed 25-page report to myself at the end of June 2011. The group also reported back to the high level implementation group for the overall management and implementation of the Harvest 2020 recommendations. In addition, Teagasc, in consultation with the other State agencies and relevant stakeholders, has established a number of working groups to examine in detail individual horticultural sectors and, to date, two reports on the cut foliage and apple sectors have been prepared.

Since receiving the horticultural action group report, I, my officials and the relevant State agencies have been involved in progressing the implementation of as many of the recommendations as are feasible in the current economic climate. I have met the main supermarkets to impress on them the need to support Irish producers, although to no avail in that they continue to abuse the Irish farmer and supplier daily and are putting them out of business. They do not seem to be listening to anybody. I have also secured funding of €3.25 million for the horticultural grant scheme for this year which has been allocated to projects across all areas of horticultural activity.

Deputy Patrick O’Donovan

I welcome the Minister of State's response, although it highlights the fact there is an issue with regard to labelling. In the supermarkets, unfortunately, whether the product is a chicken or a griselinia, consumers do not know that it is Irish because the labelling of Irish farm products, whether from a greenhouse or a field, is totally inadequate.

The fact Bord Bia is the responsible agency does not give this issue the significance the industry deserves. The fact there are some 18,500 employees means there are a lot of mouths to feed. The producers deserve, if not a quango, a separate entity that will drive forward the labelling, marketing and research that is needed.

The recommendations of the report commissioned by the Minister of State will be interesting. I take on board his point in regard to the horticulture industry. I have made the point to the producers that they need to formalise themselves into a national association and engage with the Minister of State in a constructive way. There is also massive export potential, when one considers the number of garden centres and of people engaged in this area in the UK in particular. One thing Ireland has is plenty of rain, as we know, which means we have an excellent climate for growing the type of plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables that will get into the UK market, and which are traceable, safe and useable. However, unless we are prepared to take on board the recommendations of the report commissioned by the Minister of State, put a proper labelling system and marketing system in place and bring all the stakeholders together under the one roof, it will not work.

I take the Minister of State's point in regard to the disparate organisations pulling and dragging in separate directions. That is in the past, however, and we need to move on. I will go back to the people who contacted me and ask them to formalise themselves into a national association. When that is done, perhaps the Department and its officials can sit down with them again. This is an industry that clearly has huge potential given it already sustains 18,500 employees and God only knows how many families.

Deputy Shane McEntee

I appreciate the Deputy's comments. If he is free on Thursday, I invite him to Citywest where there will be an open day on the horticulture industry, in particular the plants sector. Doors are opening in China and in England with regard to exports, but we have to come together with regard to the logistics of transport and standing up to the multiples. If we do not do that, we are wasting our time. Please God, in the not too distant future, I will be announcing a plan that will take on the multiples, whether they like it or not.

Job Creation

Deputy Ciara Conway

As the Minister, Deputy Bruton, is aware, the IDA last year had a record breaking year in terms of job creation, with a net figure of almost 6,000 jobs created. This is not the first time the Minister will have heard somebody from Waterford try to hold the IDA to account and it will not be the last because, unfortunately, for all the good that is in the recent report, it makes very poor reading for the south east, the only region of the country to see a marked decline in terms of job creation through IDA initiatives. This drop of 8.2% translates to in excess of 1,000 jobs, a figure that is nothing to be scoffed at for Waterford city and the south-east region, which has a current unemployment rate of 20%.

There has been a lot of rhetoric about this high unemployment rate in the south east. The reality is there are people and families behind these figures who find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. What I want to know, and I have asked the same of the IDA, is whether exit interviews are being conducted with prospective investors. What is it that Waterford and the south east is lacking that other regions seem to have in abundance? If exit interviews are not being conducted, why not? Can we develop a policy to ensure that, as a Government, we have the information we need to make the best decisions to ensure something both parties promised in the run-up to the election, namely, balanced regional development?

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Deputy Richard Bruton)

I thank Deputy Conway for raising this issue. She is correct that the IDA had a record year last year, with 13,000 jobs and a net expansion of 6,000 jobs. It was the highest job creation rate in a decade and the lowest rate of job loss in a decade, and that pattern is being continued into the first half of this year.

The Deputy is also right in saying that the south east is an area that has not shared in that success, and a number of responses are necessary to try to reverse that. Part of the problem is that the pattern of IDA gains in recent times has seen a move towards very high end types of project and that has favoured the very large cities with very deep labour pools and strong and established centres. Undoubtedly, that has favoured Cork, Dublin and Galway. They have built bases in clusters and they are seeing the product of that. They act as magnets.

The challenge for us in Waterford is to seek to build an equivalent cluster of strength around the existing base within Waterford. As the Deputy is aware, I have established a south-east action plan in recognition of the particular structural problems in Waterford. We have got all the key agencies around the table, including the local authorities and the Waterford Institute of Technology, WIT. It is a question of identifying the competitive strengths and how we build those. We had a successful review meeting there recently as a result of which a number of sectoral opportunities will now be focused on, and we will seek to develop those. To be fair, WIT has a strong base in technology across telecommunications, pharmaceutical and ICT for us to build upon.

I have given a direction to our agencies to give renewed emphasis to the south east, and one of the products of that is that so far this year the number of site visits to the south east have doubled. Enterprise Ireland has had a competition for new start-ups, and I attended one of the sessions with the 20 individuals who were successful in responding to a competitive start fund. Enterprise Ireland is working intensively with those as high potential new start-ups.

There is no doubt that regional spread will be an increasing challenge because of the type of companies IDA Ireland is winning, and in trying to achieve a greater regional spread, IDA Ireland is now targeting emerging companies, not just the iconic names. It is now looking at companies that are considering their very first move out of, say, the United States to come to Ireland. We have had 11 of those so far and they will be much better prospects for getting regional spread.

The other initiative is ConnectIreland which, as the Deputy is aware, is being conducted with the assistance of a company based in the south east that is aiming to use the diaspora or anyone with connections to attract companies to consider Ireland. More than 200,000 companies come to Europe each year and most of them would not have Ireland on their radar because IDA Ireland would not be working at that level. An impressive example is that 3,500 Irish accountants are working in multinationals across the United States. That is a huge group of people whom we can use as ambassadors.

We have set a target for IDA Ireland of 50% outside of Dublin and Cork. It did not come anywhere near that in 2011; it was only 28%. This year so far we are showing much better. It is closer to the 50% target, although not quite at it, but I would have to admit that the south east continues to be a challenge. We are working on it. We have had a six months review. We will continue to have those meetings. We set targets that we seek to achieve, and we are examining the reason companies are leaving. By and large, it is not always a great guide. It is not that Waterford is doing something wrong. Companies reach the end of their cycle. I am not sure looking at those who are leaving is the best source of information. We are trying to examine the competitive strengths of the region and build on that. However, I will ask IDA Ireland to examine if there is a pattern to the companies which have left in the past two years to determine if there is a diagnostic from that on which we could build based on what the Deputy is suggesting.

Deputy Ciara Conway

I thank the Minister for his response. He may have misunderstood me. I welcome that there has been a notable increase in the number of companies that have visited Waterford but are questions asked when prospective investors do not choose Waterford rather than the reason people are leaving? I can understand that macroeconomic issues can arise that impact on a company's decision to move or whatever, but in terms of the issue I raise, we have seen a huge increase in the number of IDA site visits to Waterford. However, they have not yielded any results. With the greatest respect, one can bring a horse to water but one cannot make it drink, and we need to know why they are not drinking because we need a significant investment in employment in Waterford and in the south east as a region.

There were some positives from IDA Ireland's report on Waterford, including Bausch & Lomb's investment in continued production and the loyalty that company has shown to the city over the years. Also, Genzyme is making a significant investment. Two weeks ago, I and a number of other Oireachtas Members visited GSK in Dungarvan which employs 700 people.

The companies in Waterford must be brought into the fold in terms of trade missions to allow them drum up more business for themselves and perhaps expand and secure the jobs we have already in Waterford. A vital part of the south-east task force would be to ensure those companies which are there remain.

Deputy Richard Bruton

I take the point. I will ask for that to be done in that we will examine the reason companies ultimately choose to locate elsewhere. Very often it is not Waterford competing with Limerick. It is Ireland, or Waterford, if it is the preferred location, competing with Scotland.

Deputy Ciara Conway

I know that.

Deputy Richard Bruton

The issues are to do with what many of these companies are now looking for, namely, ICT skills and language skills. There may not be the same depth of skill base in Waterford compared with some of the competing locations. In other areas we have Genzyme, on the pharmaceutical side, and we use established companies as the main reference sale. It is people who have come here and been successful in a region who become the reference sale. To be fair, Eistec, which replaced TalkTalk, is in a class of its own. It may be an Irish-owned company but it is a quality company and I am optimistic about its prospects. It will be a very good reference point in the future.

On foot of the Deputy's suggestion, we will examine the visits that do not succeed to determine if there is a pattern to those, but there are structural problems in terms of many of them. The Deputy knows them also. Many issues have arisen, some infrastructural and some to do with the knowledge infrastructure, and there are a number of issues enterprise policy alone cannot address. It was recognised in the south-east action plan that we must examine elements of the development of the region other than simply what we can do within enterprise policy.

I will take note of what the Deputy said. We will use that to see if we can analyse more closely the items we might be able to tweak in our promotion, but I reassure the Deputy of our continuing commitment. We recognise that this is an area where we have not been as successful as we would have liked, and we will continue to persist.

Suicide Incidence

Acting Chairman (Deputy Olivia Mitchell)

The next item is in the name of Deputy Billy Kelleher. This matter and the next matter in the names of Deputies Finian McGrath and Denis Naughten come under the remit of the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, but she sends her apologies to the House because she is held up in traffic. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, has kindly offered to respond to the issue.

Deputy Billy Kelleher

Knowing the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, quite well it is a brave person who would try to replace her but I know the Minister will do his best.

Acting Chairman (Deputy Olivia Mitchell)

Brave or foolish.

Deputy Billy Kelleher

The reasons I raise this issue are twofold. First, a report was published today which analysed suicides in Cork over a three year period. It was quite disturbing in view of the fact that behind the statistics I personally knew some of the people who had taken their own lives for whatever reason. There is a need to implement the national substance misuse strategy and to address the issue of alcohol once and for all in society. I hope we will not park the issue and refer it to a committee that will wait for ages before a sub-committee issues a report. We know for certain, and all the statistical data show, that alcohol is a major contributory factor to mental health problems and suicide in this country. The recent report found that 80% of young males who took their lives were abusing alcohol for a year prior to their committing suicide. For all those reasons I urge the Government to implement the substance misuse strategy as quickly, efficiently and effectively as possible.

Recently we witnessed disturbances and anti-social behaviour connected with a concert in the Phoenix Park. Thousands of people congregate on a regular basis in this country and no difficulties arise but it is a recipe for disaster where there is a cocktail of cheap drink sloshing around the system and the use of illegal and other substances in terms of anti-social behaviour, damage to individuals, collective damage to society and, in this unfortunate case, deaths.

According to the World Health Organisation, tackling alcohol pricing is one of the most effective policies a government can undertake to reduce alcohol consumption and associated alcohol-related harm. We have taken action on tobacco. We adopted the policy of increasing prices to decrease consumption and of making advertising less attractive so as to reduce consumption. I do not blame the Government but it is unfortunate that we have done the exact opposite with alcohol. Collectively, the Government and the people should try to limit the availability of cheap alcohol, in particular to younger people. For all those reasons I urge the Minister to follow up on the report commissioned by the Suicide Support and Information System, the National Suicide Research Foundation and Dr. Ella Arensman. It brings home the impact of alcohol on society and on individuals who are already under pressure, who may have mental health issues and use alcohol as a crutch and for escapism, and who end up in a situation where further depression leads to self-harm or suicide.

I was a little disappointed at the Cabinet's response to the proposals on the advertising of alcohol. Let us have such a debate, but the Government should at least introduce minimum pricing for alcohol. That would automatically make drink more expensive and less available to people. We can have a debate on the other issue again but we should not let it slow this issue down. It is critically important for us to show, collectively, as a society that we acknowledge that we have a problem with alcohol in this country.

Minister for Education and Skills (Deputy Ruairí Quinn)

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. As the House has been informed, my colleague Deputy Kathleen Lynch, whose shoes I would never attempt to step into, is unavoidably detained and I have offered to take both this matter and the subsequent matter on her behalf.

Reach Out, the national strategy for action on suicide prevention, recognises that alcohol and substance misuse are strongly related to deliberate self-harm and suicidal behaviour. The national registry of deliberate self-harm for 2011, published by the National Suicide Research Foundation, again highlights the misuse of alcohol as one of the factors associated with the higher rate of self-harm presentations on Sundays, Mondays and public holidays.

We, as a society, can no longer be tolerant or ambivalent when it comes to the pattern of alcohol consumption and the problems for which alcohol is responsible. The Government is concerned at the harm caused by the use and misuse of alcohol and, to that end, a report of the national substance misuse strategy steering group was launched in February this year. The report contains a range of recommendations to, among other things, reduce the consumption of alcohol in general. The recommendations are grouped under five pillars of supply reduction, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and research.

The main recommendations cover areas such as those correctly raised by Deputy Kelleher, namely, the price of alcohol, advertising, sponsorship, monitoring the enforcement of the provisions of the intoxicating liquor legislation and the development of early intervention guidelines for alcohol and substance use across all relevant sectors of the health and social care system. The substance misuse report is a roadmap for the future direction of policy to deal with the misuse of alcohol and an action plan is currently being developed.

The latest figures for the number of people who died by suicide last year or who have engaged in deliberate self-harm are truly disturbing. Suicide is a tragedy that we are constantly working to prevent, and we are also working to give more support to the families affected. The implementation of Reach Out, the national strategy for action on suicide prevention, is a priority for the Government and a personal priority for the Minister of State directly involved in the area, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. The National Office for Suicide Prevention, NOSP, is implementing the Reach Out actions as part of a four-way strategy which involves delivering a general population approach to mental health promotion and suicide prevention; using targeted programmes for people at high risk of suicide; delivering services to individuals who have engaged in deliberate self-harm; and providing support to families and communities bereaved by suicide. The annual budget for this work has been increased by the Government to more than €12 million.

A wide range of awareness and training programmes are available, including safeTALK and ASIST, which train participants to become more alert to the possibility of suicide in their communities. The Irish College of General Practitioners is currently developing a specific suicide prevention skills training programme which will be rolled out in the near future. The NOSP has also piloted a system under which suicide crisis assessment nurses work with emergency departments and GPs, which will be rolled out nationally this year. Up to 20 voluntary organisations part-funded by the HSE provide excellent prevention, intervention and postvention support services including telephone helplines and web-based support. The special allocation of €35 million for mental health which was announced in budget 2012 will be used primarily to further strengthen community mental health teams in both adult and children's mental health services. Some of the additional funds will also be used to advance further suicide prevention initiatives and to initiate the provision of psychological and counselling services in primary care, specifically for people with mental health problems.

Deputy Billy Kelleher

I thank the Minister for the reply. We must admit that as a nation we have a problem with alcohol. We must introduce policies that send out a strong message that we accept our difficulties in terms of how we deal with alcohol and our pattern of drinking and binge drinking. The reduction in the age of people who regularly abuse alcohol is disturbing. I do not wish to be seen as a killjoy. I was a young lad too, but the bottom line is that we cannot ignore the issue any longer. If the Cabinet, as is indicated, has a difficulty with the area of sponsorship then let us have the debate at another time, but let us deal with minimum pricing and supply as a matter of urgency. At least that would send out a message that the Government, Parliament and people are willing to tackle alcohol consumption and its fallout in terms of mental health problems, suicide, anti-social behaviour and all that flows from it.

Deputy Ruairí Quinn

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. I do not think we can say any longer that we do not know the facts, that we do not have the evidence and that we are not aware of the scale or extent of the problem. As the Deputy rightly said, the evidence is in front of us. I share his concern that the Government must listen to what is being said in this House and must consider the various reports I have cited on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. I assure Deputy Kelleher and the House that I will convey his concern to her personally.

Services for People with Disabilities

Acting Chairman (Deputy Olivia Mitchell)

Deputies Denis Naughten and Finian McGrath should note the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, has sent her apologies as she has, unfortunately, been caught in traffic. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, will stand in for her.

Deputy Finian McGrath

I wish to raise once again the forgotten issue in current political debates, that of young people with a physical and intellectual disability. This issue is hugely important for the young people themselves and, in particular, their families. It is also an issue that can be dealt with easily with the right attitude, with sensible and correct policies and the support of parents and service providers.

Is it not an absolute and total disgrace that today the Government can find €2 billion for roads and buildings and yet cannot find €2 million to €3 million for 220 young people with a disability who have no place to go to next September? Does anyone in his or her right mind find this acceptable, despite the current economic crisis? Does the Minister? Is he aware that 226 young people with an intellectual disability who need a training or day care place have been forced to go on a waiting list? Moreover, 660 other school leavers need some form of specialist placement. This is the reality for those on the ground. For example, one disability service covering the north side of Dublin has 40 service users who are in crisis and need residential care. I hope the Minister understands what the term "crisis needs" means. These are adults in their 40s and 50s whose parents are dead, very ill or who have dementia or Alzheimer's disease and who need urgent care. In other words, there are 40 such young people and adults in one service alone, yet the Government is prepared to spend billions of euro on roads and buildings.

In addition, at a national level between 2012 and 2016, 217 people will require a new day care service, while 486 will require a home support service and 2,248 residential places. In addition, 2,040 support services will be needed in respect of respite services. While these are the facts, the Minister will have noted I referred to what will happen in the next five years. I urge him to deal with this issue concerning people with intellectual disabilities who have left school this week and will need a place in September.

Deputy Denis Naughten

Nearly one in four school leavers with an intellectual disability and one in five young adults who have left post-leaving training courses are seeking a placement. This comprises a significant cohort of young adults who await a placement, even leaving aside the issues relating to physical and sensory disabilities about which there are also problems. Quite a number of those awaiting a placement have high dependency needs, requiring either one-to-one or two-to-one care. The high dependency places cannot be provided from existing resources, as has been the instruction by the Minister to the service providers which have taken a 3.7% cut to their overall funding. This will have an impact on the individualised services provided for these young people and marks a reversion to providing group services which are contrary to public policy.

It is not good enough for parents to be obliged to wait until the middle of July to learn whether they will have a place for their son or daughter next September. They are waiting for letters to arrive and some have gone on waiting lists, which is not acceptable. Others have been informed they have a part-placement, for either two or three days per week, while others have been informed they will be provided with a place until Christmas, but the position thereafter is unknown, which simply constitutes kicking the can down the road. Moreover, on top of all this, they are being given no choice; they are being told they can either like it or lump it. Some placements are not appropriate and it is akin to telling a leaving certificate student that, having failed to secure his or her preferred choice of a college to study agricultural science, he or she must take up a place in speech and drama studies instead. It is not acceptable that people are being forced into positions in which they must take particular places and that other young people are not even being given the opportunity to take up any placement. Additional funding will be required to address this issue and I urge the Minister to discuss it with the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, and address the issue as urgently as possible.

Deputy Ruairí Quinn

I thank the two Deputies for bringing this important matter to the attention of the House. It is not unrelated to my own responsibility in education, although it is catered for by the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, whose apologies have been conveyed to the House.

I recognise the importance of life skills training and day services to people with disabilities who are leaving the education system and assure Members that every effort is being made within the available resources to provide services for all of the 2012 school leavers. Day services for adults with disabilities provide a network of support for more than 25,000 people who have a wide spectrum of needs ranging from those with severe and profound disabilities and who are likely to need long-term specialist service provision to those with lower support needs and a greater potential for community participation and inclusion.

The HSE, through its occupational guidance service, works with schools, service providers, service users and families to identify the needs of young people with disabilities who are due to complete their second level education. The aim is to address the needs of individuals through health-funded life skills training which usually is referred to as rehabilitative or RT training, health-funded day services, FÁS-funded vocational training and further education. Service providers and the HSE have come together under the auspices of the national consultative forum to identify how the needs of those individuals who require day services or RT places in 2012 can be responded to within available resources and the Minister of State is being kept informed of progress on a regular basis. I assure Members the process of notifying families whether a place is available or whether the young person is to be placed on a waiting list has commenced. Many families have been informed this week and every family should know the position very soon.

The demand for services for school leavers continues to grow as more than 660 school leavers will need services in 2012 and suitable placements also must be identified for a further 390 people who are completing their RT course. Disability services are required to cater for demographic pressures such as new services for those leaving school and RT training from within their existing budgets. The budgets for 2012 have been reduced by 3.7% and the moratorium on staff recruitment gives rise to challenges in service provision. However, both the voluntary sector and the HSE are committed to making the best use of available resources in a creative and flexible manner in order to be as responsive as possible to the needs of this cohort of young Irish citizens. To date, more than 500 of those leaving school this year have been placed in an RT place or other day service. In addition, places have been found for 321 of those who are completing their RT course. I thank the HSE disability service and service providers for working to achieve this without additional funding. The HSE and the disability service providers acknowledge this is a difficult time for the young people who have yet to be placed in an appropriate service, as well as for their families. Therefore, the Government will continue to make every effort to find suitable arrangements for them.

Deputy Finian McGrath

The Minister should bring back the message that he will make every effort to find suitable arrangements for these young people. However, I will quote briefly from a letter I received this morning from a parent who is dealing with a seriously disabled young teenager. He wrote:

What I am hearing is that some parents are being communicated with verbally and the trend appears to be that the HSE are madly scrambling to get the numbers down by addressing those with ‘lower' needs (or perceived to be lower needs or their needs have been inadequately assessed) in the first instance, shoehorning people in where ever they can. Those with greater needs are being left as the resources required are greater. Not sure where this is all going to go but I can tell you that the stress levels are rising in this house.

I feel that it is still going to need input from outside the HSE to redirect the required resources.

In other words, my point is that the severely disabled kids and young teenagers are the ones who are being hammered because they will cost more from a resources perspective and as that parent's letter demonstrates, stress levels are rising. Consequently, I urge the Minister to support them as best he can.

Deputy Denis Naughten

To follow on from Deputy Finian McGrath's comments, this pertains to a cohort of young people, many of whom have profound disabilities. At the best of times it is a difficult challenge for parents who are involved in caring for such children on an ongoing basis, without being left in limbo in which they do not know what will happen from 1 September onwards. To be quite honest, it is not good enough that we are telling those parents in the middle of July that they will find out their position very soon. An intellectual disability database was set up to ensure this crisis would not be replicated year after year, yet parents will now have to wait until the end of July.

How many families have received a letter from the HSE at this stage? How many families have a full placement or a part placement offer from the HSE, or even a placement for part of a year, which is only kicking the can down the road? How many families have now been left on a waiting list with no service provision whatsoever? These are basic questions and I hope the Minister can answer them.

Deputy Ruairí Quinn

I thank both Deputies for raising this matter. I recognise the seriousness of it. I also recognise that we are dealing with a cohort of young people who are moving from a certain phase in their life out of secondary education or training and into the wider world. The relationship between those young people and their families is itself changing, and the fact that they have disabilities does not alter that transition process.

I do not have the answers to the questions raised by Deputy Naughten, but they are on the record of the House and I will ask Deputy Kathleen Lynch to ensure that specific replies are conveyed to both Deputies.