Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I accept what the Minister is saying. In fairness, this service has turned around dramatically in recent years under his stewardship. There is an excellent service in place, and the Minister is dealing with the cracks in the system. This regional scheme, which we only became aware of this week, is a positive development for HPSUs and one of the ones I have mentioned will be going down that road.

My difficulty is that we have a range of suites of support. We have many soft supports, which are equally if not more important than the cash supports, but to tap into all that the Minister must get face to face with a staff member in a local enterprise office who can first put him in contact with these people and, second, do the follow-up to see if everything is okay. That follow-up is not happening because the resources are not available in the local offices, specifically in Roscommon and Galway, to ensure it happens. All the supports are welcome but if we do not have the staffing capacity to ensure we can utilise those, that is where they are slipping between the cracks. That is the biggest problem I have with people coming to me whom I am referring on.