David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mr. O'Brien has been given a tour of the State today, from Galway, through Cavan and on to Waterford. First, health care is one of the most emotive issues for people. We are public representatives and we deal with people every day, and I am sure Mr. O'Brien respects that. Issues relating to mental health services capacity, supporting children with disabilities, patients lying on hospital trolleys and people waiting longer than 18 months for an outpatient appointment are real. They are not imagined, so when we put questions that are robust, it is because people expect us to hold those who are responsible for the provision of health care to account. They expect us to do that. If we do not do that, we are not doing our job. The robustness of our questions, while it might frustrate Mr. O'Brien at times, is driven by the fact that people expect it. Unfortunately, as Mr. O'Brien has said himself, the health service is not perfect. There are people who are not getting the quality of care they need because of systemic problems in the health system. I am just offering that up as an observation and I hope Mr. O'Brien can accept it as it is intended.

I will now move to the issue of supporting children with disabilities and early intervention. Again, I gave Mr. O'Brien prior notice that I was going to raise this and a number of other issues. I have to give Mr. O'Brien a local example because that is what I am familiar with, but it helps to frame the issue in a national context. There are two different levels to the service provision for children with disabilities. Early intervention is for those from birth to six years and then there is the service for six to 18 year olds. Is that correct?