MINISTER OF STATE for Disabilities Anne Rabbitte has confirmed that there will be additional supports made available when disability services reopen in August.

Minister Rabbitte has said that the HSE is working with disability service providers to determine the level of financial supports that will be necessary to implement social distancing measures within disability services.

“The HSE is in the process of reviewing business cases from service providers for additional funding to support the reopening of services, which will be drawn down from the COVID-19 Pandemic Health service funding of €2 billion,” said Minister Rabbitte.

While a full reopening of services would be ideal, COVID-19 has not gone away and we cannot put lives at risk as services reopen. Safety is paramount. 

Minister Rabbitte also met with the HSE yesterday to discuss progress on the reopening of disability services and how people need more clarity around when services are expected to reopen.

“I’ve been working with the HSE to ensure there are enough supports in place for the reopening of services from August,” said Minister Rabbitte, adding that she is keen to see services reopen as soon as possible.

According to Minister Rabbitte, it will be up to individual services to decide on their opening dates, but that neither the HSE nor Department of Health have heard of any services opening later than September.

As part of measures to reduce uncertainty, Minister Rabbitte has asked the HSE to set up a web portal to outline the reopening dates of all services and the number of people that will be able to access them each day.

The information from all 966 services will then be collated and posted on the HSE’s website from August 4th. This will help provide the clarity and reassurance people are seeking at the moment.