Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The short answer is that we are not but we have really started on a lot of it over the past couple of months. I will give the Senator two examples related to the most difficult area. I refer to the work of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on child protection and welfare and the work being led by the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, on disability. We all know, from our constituency emails and offices, of the huge unmet need where disability services are concerned. We all know that successive Governments will announce more and well-intentioned funding for that area. However, we also know we are not training enough speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. I do not profess to be an expert on all of this but there will always be an issue with medical mobility and there is something to the process of doctors going abroad and coming back. However, particularly in the area of social workers and people working in disability services, we must ensure we are training a hell of a lot more people to ensure we have the supply pipeline, for want of a better term. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has, to her great credit, published the disability capacity review. To be honest it is a very difficult read because it shows the level of unmet need. My officials are currently participating in working groups set up by the Minister of State. What we must do now is map out that if the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth wants to ensure it can deliver on commitments to people with disabilities and children with disabilities, it needs to do A, B and C but we need to train X, Y and Z.