Parents of young adults with special needs in South Leitrim are losing patience

Sligo Leitrim TD Marian Harkin told Minister Ann Rabbitte in the Dail that parents of young adults with special needs in South Leitrim are losing patience with the slow progress in the provision of promised residential accommodation, both short-term respite accommodation and long-term residential accommodation.

“Parents are really losing patience at this point because it's going on too long,” Ms Harkin said, “already one of the parents of these young adults has died, and you know Minister, the abiding concern of every parent in this situation is ‘what's going to happen when I'm not here’.

“That is why they want to hear that real progress is being made in relation to the provision of long-term residential accommodation for their adult children with special needs.”

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“Twenty-one months ago, Minister, you attended a public meeting with all stakeholders and public representatives in relation to residential accommodation,” Deputy Harkin continued, “but at this stage parents are very concerned about the lack of progress.”

Minister Rabbitte said that the funding is ring-fenced for both developments but Deputy Harkin said that while there is progress on short-term respite there is no progress on the provision of long-term accommodation.

“It is also important to say that parents and friends have fundraised a sum of €300,000 for this development and that is already in the bank.

“Minister, the issue seems to be, and I've looked at the minutes of eleven different meetings between October 2022 and December 23, when it comes to discussing and deciding on a residential property the only action associated with investigating this is to ‘follow up’.

“This has been promised again and again and we need to see concrete developments following on from all this ‘follow up’,” Ms Harkin said.

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In relation to promised temporary respite facilities to give family carers an occasional break, Ms Harkin said that there has been progress, including a decision from Leitrim County Council to grant conditional planning for the construction of a building described by the Minister as “a five-bedroom house that should add a capacity of 1,800 bed nights into the system.”

“That is all very welcome,” Deputy Harkin said, “and parents are eagerly looking forward to the construction and opening of this new facility, but they are most anxious about the delay in progressing long-term residential accommodation.