Mr. Odhrán Allen:

I will go back to Senator Burke's questions. On staffing, occupational therapists are available. There are delays in recruitment because we have a panel system which is operated centrally by the HSE. That creates issues. That is part of the recruitment issue but there are occupational therapists who would be more than happy to take jobs in these services. What numbers are needed? I draw the attention of the committee to the document, "A National Model of Care for Paediatric Healthcare Services in Ireland". The HSE's own paediatric clinical programme has a range of resources, one of which is this document. Chapter 9 of this excellent resource is a guide to workforce planning. It outlines the numbers required within progressing disabilities services and across paediatric services. It has established the levels of staffing that are needed. This is an excellent piece of work.

The people leading on progressing disabilities services within the HSE are clear that the structure of progressing disabilities services is the right one but, in terms of resourcing, the physical infrastructure is required, that is, the building to house these teams. Administration staff, IT systems and professionals are also needed.

I refer to Deputy Kate O'Connell's questions. We agree that the HSE needs to answer the question about the 90 minutes discrepancy. On the missed timeframe and the question of whether children will ever get it back, the only answer I can give is that a lost opportunity is a lost opportunity. I agree with the Deputy that it creates a false economy in which we are trying to make up for the lost opportunity. The moratorium is gone, though there are historical issues related to it because there has not been any significant investment in services to roll out progressing disabilities services since 2016. Even though the moratorium is over, there has not been the investment to roll out progressing disabilities services in other areas. I will let Ms O'Malley take the other questions.