Parents of children attending a special school in Beaufort, Co Kerry have appealed to Kerry County Council members to support their campaign for respite services to be provided for families of children who are due to leave the school in June.
St Francis Special School caters for more than 70 children, aged from four to 19, who have severe and/or profound intellectual challenges.
Children attending the school currently receive two to three nights respite care per month.
However, for the past three years, when the children leave the school in their late teens, that respite care is no longer available to them.
The parents say they are effectively impacted on the double: in addition to having to take over the full-time care of their children, they are also being deprived of respite care.
That is according to Jean O'Sullivan, Chairperson of St Francis Special School Parents' Association.
She says parents are exhausted and on their knees.
At a meeting at the school this afternoon, parents told their individual stories to the members of Kerry County Council in the hope of enlisting their support in their campaign to get the HSE to provide their children with respite care.
'No services for the children'
"We are asking you - the Kerry County Council members - to come behind our wonderful families in the fight to access respite supports for our wonderful children making the transition to the adult services," Ms O'Sullivan said.
"At present there are no services for the children and we ask that St Mary of the Angel's campus be used to provide adequate respite services.
"We want to care for our children at home but we need help and we need supports to allow us to continue to care for our children. Respite supports are vital for families to prevent burn out and exhaustion."
She said the St Mary of the Angel's campus, where St Francis Special School is located, is the ideal solution to the lack of respite facilities in Kerry.
"The center is there, the facilities are there and why not utilise what is already there," Ms O'Sullivan said.
"We understand that national policy says that the center will not be used to house people indefinitely and this is not what we are asking for.
"We ask that they open the doors and help families," she said.
