Minister of State Joe O’Brien Opens Sánas Respite Balbriggan Alternative Respite

Minister of State Joe O’Brien today (Friday 27th October 2023) opened Sánas Respite in Balbriggan CHO DNCC Disability Services.

The aim of Sánas is to create a stable, progressive environment to provide each child with the opportunity to develop social skills and friendship within their community, while providing respite for families.

Sánas provides respite after-school and on the weekends and acts as a hub to bring together families and children who use the service to gain support, experiences and learnings.

This is one of two centres operated by Sánas in CHO Dublin North City and County, following an inaugural opening in Finglas in 2022.

Minister O’Brien said:

“Due to need and requests from families and children, Disability Services in the CHO, my Department of Children committed to developing another Sanas site during 2023 for children and that is why I have the enjoyable task today of formally opening this service.”

Sánas provides respite after-school and on the weekends and acts as a hub to bring together families and children who use the service to gain support, experiences and learnings.

The service currently provides service to 83 children in Balbriggan each week within CHO Dublin North City and County, and a further 100 children are supported in their Finglas Centre.

The Government is very much aware of the importance of respite service provision for the families of both children and adults with disabilities and the positive impact it can have on people’s lives.

We know that there is a lot of unmet need in the respite area and we are doing our best to ensure that we utilise to the fullest extent the respite capability that we have and at the same time, expand provision, meeting the needs of more families.

The service aims to provide each service user not only with the opportunity to develop friendship and social skills, but also greater independence and self-sufficiency.

Recognising the challenges faced by the sector, Minister O’Brien praised the work of Sánas:

“At the moment, this is particularly difficult as providers are faced with not just an increase in demand in children and adults who have complex individual needs, but also challenges around both the availability of premises and staff.

For those reasons, it is particularly heartening to see innovative services like this one opening up and providing an excellent support for families.”

Concluding, Minister O’Brien restated Government’s commitment to respite and commended the work done by the service:

“I want to reassure you all that respite will continue to be a Government priority. I am delighted to see services like Sánas open and expand and both Minister Rabbitte and myself would love to see all families having access to innovative and child centred services like this one.

I commend everyone involved in this excellent service for all the good work you have put in and all the work that I know you will put in going forward.”