Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ms O'Neill is not, as I understand it, suggesting the assessment has been replaced and it seems to me to be a triage measure, so I will call it a "preassessment". I would hate this preassessment to become the statutory obligation because the Disability Act envisages the full assessment happening within six months. Can Ms O'Neill confirm the preassessment will not count as an assessment under the Act?

Will the HSE give an undertaking to meet the professional bodies on the 90-minute issue? Perhaps they agree with a preassessment and a duration of 90 minutes or three hours. It would be useful to meet them to determine what the time should be. A small number of therapy groups are involved - physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and psychologists. They are deeply uneasy, from a clinical perspective, about what can be achieved in 90 minutes. It is not reasonable to expect someone to wait on the wrong list for two years and not get the treatment they need.

Ms O'Neill was going to give us the statistics for the nine CHOs. Can we have them?