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A RESPITE SERVICE is finally being made available again for adults who are living with disabilities in Kerry, as some parents say they’ve gone up to 14 months without support.
In the Listowel area of the southern county, there has been no dedicated respite centre for parents with adult children with disabilities for around a year.
Such care exists to enable full-time carers to take a short break, a holiday, or even just a rest.
Early last year, the site of a former respite centre in Listowel, known as the Haven, was redesignated primarily as a centre for those dependent upon full-time care.
Kerry Parents and Friends Association run the respite services across Kerry.
The HSE purchased another four-bedroom property in the Kilmorna area of the town in 2016 for €350,000. However that property was left vacant for months, prompting heavy criticism from local parents in need of respite facilities.
Last year, the HSE announced the house would re-open on a part-time basis. However, local parents were unsatisfied with this, as the part-time facility was still the only respite available to the whole of Kerry.
Ann Kelly, a 66-year-old from Ballybunion, has a 30-year-old daughter, Laura, living with Down Syndrome. She told TheJournal.ie what it has been like to live with a lack of respite facilities in Kerry for the past year.
“We had given up hope at that stage. We didn’t think we would get full-time, we really didn’t,” Kelly told TheJournal.ie.
We didn’t realise how bad the respite situation had been. We took our eye off the ball and we took it for granted that we could get respite.
Echoing the words of Kelly, Evelyn Houlihan, who cares for her mentally disabled son on a 24/7 basis, said the situation has been very difficult.
“You feel like you’re tired the whole time. It’s very hard to do anything or go anywhere. If you need to go somewhere, you need someone to mind him,” Houlihan told TheJournal.ie.
Houlihan hasn’t received respite care in over 14 months.
Opening the facility
The house in Kilmorna was unable to open on a full-time basis as it needed to be refurbished to meet Hiqa standards. However, Cork Kerry Community Healthcare has now provided the additional funding for these works, which will mean that the house is accessible to all as it meets Hiqa regulation, according to the HSE.
“We can now confirm that funding is available to open the house on a full-time basis. We can confirm that Hiqa visited the house earlier this week as part of the registration process,” a spokesperson for the HSE said.
The HSE plans to open the facility on a full-time basis by the end of March.
Speaking about the news from the HSE, Houlihan said:
I was very relieved. It’s a lifeline for people. If you hear that you have a weekend coming up, it will keep us going.
“It’s definitely a positive thing to get this house and to get it open full-time. The part-time would have been a disaster.”
A spokesperson for the HSE said: “There is a significant level of need in Kerry for respite and there will be a fair and transparent process in place in order to ensure there is equitable access to the respite provided at Kilmorna.
“We acknowledge this has been a difficult time for persons requiring a service and their families as they have consistently advocated for a service in a constructive and respectful manner.”
The future
Although local parents have expressed their gratitude to the HSE for reopening the service on a full-time basis, both Kelly and Houlihan noted that it is still the only respite service available to service the whole of Kerry.
“One house isn’t going to solve all the problems,” Houlihan said.
South Kerry is going to have to get something. This house is for all of Kerry, it’s just a drop in the ocean.
Kelly said: “The good news is we’ve got the house. Don’t get me wrong, we are thrilled it is opening, but this is for the whole of Kerry. We’ve 120 people on a waiting list for respite in Kerry. We’ve got to keep going.
We’re going to enjoy the time of having the house, but we’re going to keep working towards south Kerry.
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I doubt if FFG has any more room under the carpet
@Shakka1244: There’s a swing somewhere no-one uses anymore, could hide it there!!!!
@Will Thompson: It’s a magic swing, makes people disappear!
@Will Thompson: Yeah and still get well paid at the same time.
The lack of transparency shows a lack of respect for the public which is disgraceful!
@Nuala Mc Namara: the electorate aren’t worthy of respect. It doesn’t matter what FFG do, they get voted back in again. The public doesn’t hold them to account so why treat them with respect?
The government parties know that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want and get voted back in irregardless so I doubt they care too much.
what happened to the, nothing to fear ,nothing to hide mantra that we’ve been hearing from fg about this card…. publish the report if there’s nothing to hide
The Government need to seriously examine why they are held hostage to bad or unworkable ideas like this one, the National Broadband Plan, the Children’s hospital, the strategy in the MauriceMcCabe saga, the Housing policies that are making things worse, etc, etc, etc. They defend these bad ideas to the death and line up ministers to defend and deny until the bitter end. Admit mistakes were made, learn from them and move on. It’s Ireland anyway. It’s not like admitting mistakes will cost anyone their job.
@Sean: all governments use thinktanks as their special advisers, usually made up the topdogs in finance, media and so forth….it is they that run countries.
@Sean: this government’s broadband, hospital, hse and homeless strategy is going exactly to their plan
@Sean: Everything the FG government does, in collusion with it’s coalition partners FF, is done according to policy decisions driven by FFG’s political dogma. FG are hostage to nothing but their political dogma.
FG have always despised the poor, the low paid, the less well off, the unemployed. They don’t govern on their behalf, they rule over ordinary people for the benefit of the rich, foreign private investor corporations, corporate interests. The IMF oversees any decisions the FG minority government makes. The IMF, the world’s privateers and asset strippers, dictate policy as agreed with Noonan to sustain the rotten and corrupt banking system in the country.
FG have no mandate to force such policies on the country. When you go into a GE after being part of a coalition government and you lose 26 seats in that GE you have lost any mandate to govern. This FG minority government is sustained by way of secret backroom deals made with a party that is bound by the constitution to oppose the government and hold it to account for the decisions it makes. That makes a total mockery of the democratic process in the country. FG and their partners in government,FF, don’t make mistakes. Everything is deliberate and according to plan.
This is ridiculous at this stage, whos behind this? Whos benefiting? I guarantee there is absolutely no benefits to the taxpayer but someone is benefiting. Fg are so belligerent about this and it stinks of a scandal and/or tribunal down the road
@Thomas Maher: it’s definitely gonna cost the state in payouts.
@Thomas Maher: If you say nothing I’ll give you half of this big brown envelope I just happened to find!
@Thomas Maher: The benefit for government is the potential for control over the lives of the citizens of Ireland.
@Thomas Maher: A great FF benefactor is the beneficiary!
Why would they . They are spinna gael
@Leo Lalor: Another minister incapable of the position they were appointed to.
It will be interesting to see how the Facilitraitor Party reacts?
Time to remove FG labour FF from Irish politics, 10 years this has gone on and now the countrys data protection agency is being attacked by them for telling the truth, they have behaved illegally.
@@mdmak33: What are they hiding??? Who got the contracts?
@TamuMassif2019: the same people that make the passport, the very thing they are making it compulsory for, how odd!
@Commentator: So you think that they be charging a massive fee for these cards next??? lol.
@TamuMassif2019: @ 60 mill I reckon they’ve already done that!
Can I ask a question. Maybe I’m totally off the wall but what are peoples problems with having a card with all their information on it ? Wouldn’t it make it easier for dealing with all depts eventually and rather than having to fill out forms and bring lots of stuff with you all you would need is the card ? I know there is a fear of the information being accessed improperly but surely if this was safeguarded everything would be ok. Move with the times and all that
@Declan Moran: you’re new here, aren’t you?
@Declan Moran: most people don’t have a problem with such a card. What most people have a problem with was the PSC’s compulsory nature; the fact that passports or driving licences – both legal and valid forms of ID – were to no longer be accepted; the way it was handled in that it was de facto a national ID card but without any legal basis; the fact that the government refused to debate it in the Dáil; and the fact that the government has already proven that they cannot safeguard the privacy of the information held on these cards. As for “rather than having to fill out forms and bring lots of stuff with you” – well, you still had to do that.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: thanks Brian. I hadn’t the energy.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: if you’re not adopted, an immigrant in dp, etc etc
@Mike Rugby Nuts: I feel like I’m missing the entire second half of your sentence. What point are you making about if “you’re not adopted, an immigrant in dp [sic]?”
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: dp is Direct Provision, I was too weary of FFG to finish that sentence.
@Mike Rugby Nuts: I figured that much out the first time around. Your sentence still makes no sense to me. What about adoption or immigration are you trying to say, and how do they relate to the PSC?
F them all out.
Everyone should just sue the department and the government.
@The Irish Bull: Good man and make all our lawyers billionaires.
Remove FFG..
It’s all very clear since the report went into the hands of the government that they intend to continue on with this illegal instrument. It didn’t matter what the DPC had to say in the report, it never mattered that legal experts told the government time and time again that there is no legal basis for this card, that people’s right to protection on their private and personal data and it’s abuse by this FG minority government was being ignored.
FG want this Biometric National ID Card by the back door as the means to control the lives of its citizens. Just as in India, the Aadhaar Card, the nation ID card there is being used illegally by the Indian government. The card has put the people of that country under the most draconian and intrusive surveillance. It will be put to the same use in Ireland if this government isn’t stopped.
It is as clear as day that this PSC is no benign instrument in the hands of this minority government and they will fight tooth and nail to keep it and to hell with the legalities.
Keep the Peasants in the dark
@Geoff Bateman: Under foot in the mud?
Sure why would they do the right thing, these mutants of FFG know full well that the deluded supporters they have who are stuck in the me fein, parish pump minset, will still vote them in no matter what
So much for our democracy! Openness, transparency my foot!!
So how much can I sue them for?
@Harry Trafford: The legal eagles reckon the payout for anyone that sues over the PSC is in the region of 15,000 euro.
Another mess covered up
There’s a great book called IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black. It describes what happens when the government knows too much about the citizens.
This govt believe they are answerable to nobody. Who Fianna FAIL. Sure they say nothing. Toothless. And the rest. Hmmmm
have your say