HSE is consistently failing in its care for people with disabilities

From costly and ineffective outsourcing to an inability to parse its own data — as it's all in a single Excel-based file — HSE failure isn’t an anomaly, it’s a pattern, writes Cianan Brennan

The latest revelations about the large number of children with disabilities in State accommodation more than 50km from their home fits into a pattern of a lot of money spent, poor planning, and poor record-keeping. Picture: iStock

THIS week, the Irish Examiner revealed that at least a quarter of children with disabilities residing in State accommodation in Ireland are living more than 50km from their home.

In this latest in a series of articles on accommodation for people living with disabilities, much of the new information follows similar trends seen across Ireland’s public services — a lot of money spent, poor planning, little bang achieved for the Government’s buck, and poor-to-the-point-of-negligence record-keeping on the part of the HSE.