Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister referred to the changes and a simple guide to direct people.

One of the areas the Minister could look at is that of the CHO and the acute services. If one looks at the map they do not dovetail. It is clearly one of the problems.

Another area is the amount of funding that is divided out is based on an old system when it should be going to the areas of greatest need. We all agree with that. The practical measures do not cost anything to implement.

There are other matters I wish to talk to the Minster about, such as speech and language; it is unacceptable that children with profound need have to wait up to three years to be seen.

Respite care is another area which I have raised before. It is the big issue that people talk to us about, where one has mothers and fathers and, in some cases mothers alone looking after children and the issue of access to services.

I will give one example, and everybody will nod their head that this should not happen. A mother rearing kids on her own has never had access to respite care for her two children at the same time, it is always at different times. Everyone agreed, including the officials who came in, that that should be a simple thing to fix and it would not cost anything. It has never been done and that woman is looking after those children - one is 17, the other is younger. That is a long time to go without respite care. It would be a simple thing for those children to go into respite at the same time. Perhaps the Minister and his officials could take a note of this, please.