We are moving to health now. I think the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, has covered education and transport this evening and I am not sure what else. Fair play to him. I want to talk about the LauraLynn Foundation. I recently met the chief executive and head of communications in advance of the budget. To give the Minister of State a bit of background, the LauraLynn Foundation was established after the loss of two sisters, Laura and Lynn McKenna, to illnesses in 1999 and 2001. This tragedy inspired their parents, Jane and Brendan McKenna, to found the LauraLynn Hospice, Ireland's first dedicated children's palliative care unit. They had witnessed at first hand the need for specialised home-like support and, of course, palliative care. The work that this hospice does is phenomenal. When I met the CEO, she acknowledged the recent changes in the programme for Government, where there is a commitment to deliver a new national policy for palliative care for children and to increase funding for children's hospice care. The hospice is asking for these programme for Government commitments to be prioritised urgently in the upcoming budget. Time is precious for these children and their families, as the Minister of State knows. To ensure children have timely access to hospice care, the LauraLynn Foundation urgently needs that funding. Statutory funding has not kept pace with the growth in demand for the service and it will run a deficit of €1.9 million in 2025, rising to €2 million in 2026. I will give the Minister of State an idea of the demand that the hospice experiences. In 2021, 203 children were receiving palliative care in the hospice. For 2026 that is predicted to rise to 440. The number of families receiving bereavement care was 119 in 2021. That will more or less double by 2026 to 230. The number of community visits the hospice conducts has risen from 380 in 2021 to a predicted 4,500 in 2026. There are estimates that 2,000 children in this country require palliative care. As I have just demonstrated, the hospice is providing care for approximately 440. There is clearly an unmet need here. The work it does is phenomenal and needs to be supported by the HSE and the Department of Health in the coming budget. To keep pace with demand, the foundation continues to actively fundraise. I again refer to its pre-budget submission. The amount it fundraised in 2021 was €3.2 million. By 2026 it estimates it has to fundraise €5.7 million. The service this group is providing is clearly increasing. It has increased by 180% since its inception. The demand is clearly there. I understand we are not going to negotiate the budget tonight on the floor of the Dáil. However, I would like the Deputy to take a message back to the Department of Health and the Minister, that of all the budgetary asks she is going to have, this is one of the most worthy.

Sentiment score: 0.24

I thank the Minister of State for acknowledging the great work the hospice does. I should have led by saying I remember that a few years ago, I heavily lobbied the then Minister for public expenditure - I think it was Michael McGrath at the time - about Marymount hospice, which does phenomenal work in Cork. It is now fully funded in the area of staff. An arrangement was done with section 38 and section 39 workers. It is now fully funded as an adult hospice. Going forward, the care delivered by the LauraLynn foundation deserves the same treatment that the Marymount hospice received a number of years ago when that agreement was made. I reiterate that generally, when it comes to illnesses in children, they tend to be rare diseases and conditions. They appear to be more complex. There are effects on siblings and the family, and life must go on while all of this is happening. They must continue to attend school and do the normal day-to-day things we all take for granted. The care they provide is in many ways more acute than other comparatives. I reiterate my call for the funding. It is one of the genuine asks that will be made. I also mention the children's palliative care policy, which the Minister of State referenced in his response. The only thing that gives me concern is that they are on about reviewing the 2009 children's palliative care document. The programme for Government commits to a new care policy, and not a review of an old one. I hope that will be reflected in the Minister's work ahead.

Sentiment score: 0.22