Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As I have just said, the chief medical officer has met with the Office of the Chief Nursing Officer in the Department of Health. I thank Deputy Ó Snodaigh for the constructive manner in which he has given his opinions on this issue. This is a movement towards a more holistic assessment of people, which is very important. It is about putting a good, efficient service in place for our clients. Suitable, qualified nurses certainly have a key role in this.

It must be made very clear that the medical assessor or qualified nurse in this role does not diagnose. He or she does an assessment and gives an opinion but is not involved in the diagnostic element of it. What comes to the assessors is the documentation, whether it is from a general practitioner, consultant, other medical practitioner or a counsellor. It is an assessment on which they give an opinion. The deciding officer makes the determination. That has not changed.

Relevant experience, and I often think of occupational nurses, is what they will bring to the Department along with the life experience they have. They will bring a whole new dimension to dealing with these cases. It will be very much a holistic approach. It is a progressive way. I also take Deputy Ó Snodaigh's point that when we bring in something new we have to make sure we put the supports, structures and mechanisms in place to make sure it will work as envisioned. That is something the Department of Social Protection is very good at; it constantly reviews, checks and looks to make sure the job is being done exactly as it says on the tin. I commend the Department in that regard. When we came into office there was a backlog and an application was taking up to 26 weeks.

The times relating to those decisions are now down to 11 and 14 weeks. I take Deputy Ryan's point that we must ensure that the determinations being made are correct. We must ensure that we do not just speed up the process for the sake of doing so and see to it that good decisions are made within what I would regard as a realistic timeframe. We have got there very quickly and we must ensure that this momentum is maintained. Last year we had a long discussion on the use of agencies. When we went to the market seeking qualified doctors, we found that there was a shortage. In such circumstances, flexibility is required. In fairness to everybody here, the debate has been very constructive.