Dr. Edel McGinnity:

Deputy Jim Daly asked about children under the age of six. That has not had such a big impact in our area because most of our under sixes already had medical cards. The ones who have them definitely take up time. Parents need to be reassured and so on. In terms of where that money could have gone, there is a really critical family therapy service that has lost two staff and is now so restricted that it only takes referrals from Tusla. We could have used that money for the under sixes who are having a lot of problems.