Statement by Minister Rabbitte at the Department of Health Budget 2022 Press Briefing

Check against delivery

I’m delighted to say that following Tuesday’s announcements, the overall Budget for disability services in 2022 will now reach €2.3 billion, including a package of and additional €105m provided for our disability services in 2022.

To clear up any confusion over what this consists of, I am happy to provide a clear breakdown of this figure.

• €50m is being provided to support existing levels of disability services, known as ELS
• there will be new development funding of €55m provided in 2022, which totals €105m
• in addition, there is an additional €10, one-off COVID funding. This brings to €65m the total level of new funding for Disability Services in 2022

The government is also making available a once off allocation of €10m to be spent by the end of this year covering the areas of assistive technology and transport, which will facilitate the upgrading of service provider buses and further details will be available in the coming weeks.

In the Programme for Government, we made extensive commitments to improve the lives of people with disabilities and in doing so we have signalled to those with a disability that we are serious about making a difference. I am pleased that we have obtained significant additional funding to build on delivering on those commitments.

This money will fund a comprehensive package of measures, which will strengthen and enhance services and supports for people with disability and give them greater choice, independence and control.

The increased level of funding in 2022 will enable us to build on initiatives currently underway.

Budget 2022 will provide funding of €13m for increased residential placements on a planned basis as well for more urgent care situations.

There has been an additional allocation of €5.5m to address the situation of people with disabilities who may be inappropriately placed in Nursing Homes.

We will support the successful decongregation programme with additional revenue funding of €5m.

For school leavers, funding of €14.4m will enable young adults leaving school or training programmes next year to have access to supports and services which meet their needs at one of the most crucial transition points of their lives.

Building on the success of the 91% reduction in the Assessment of Needs backlog this year, my focus over the next 12 months is to increase access to timely early intervention services.

In Budget 2022, we will provide €8.2m for the recruitment of therapists and admin support to the newly established 91 Children’s Disability Network Teams.

I am keenly aware of the critical importance of respite for the loved ones and families of those with a disability.

I am pleased to confirm that an additional €9m will be provided in 2021 to further build the capacity of our respite services in each CHO for children and adults, as well as providing alternative models of respite.

Funding of €3.75m will also be provided to continue and expand supports for people living in their own communities.

I’m delighted to say that I have secured what is the single biggest increase in new Personal Assistant hours in recent years, with an additional 120,000 PA Hours will be provided next year, as well as an additional 30,000 Home Support Hours to support people to live self-directed lives.

I think it’s important to acknowledge that there has been some discussion since the Budget announcement in relation to the Disability Capacity Review published earlier this year.

The Disability Capacity Review is based on a 2018 baseline, and all targets for 2022 in the Review are relative to 2018, not 2021, which I think may have been missed since its publication.

At a basic level, the Disability Budget in 2018 stood at €1.77 billion. Following yesterday’s Budget announcement, the Disability Budget in 2022 will stand at around €2.3 billion.

This translates to an increase in the Disability Budget of over €530 million. Around €220m of this relates to new developments and the remaining €310m to address changes in the existing levels of service.

Hopefully, this provides additional clarity for those who have raised some questions.