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

The frustration for the committee and many of the Members of the Houses arises because we could understand, maybe earlier on in the pandemic, that the HSE was securing staff from different elements within it but in key areas, such as the CHO 7 area which Deputy Durkan and I cover, the team for children of school age with special needs has almost collapsed. In speech and language therapy, prior to the pandemic one waited possibly up to two years for an assessment and possibly another two years to get supports. Those waiting times have extended further because many of the staff have been seconded to track and trace and to other jobs. I suppose that is where the frustration arises. In the earlier days, it made sense but those people clearly need to be back in the services for which they are trained. If possible, bring on those who responded to Be on Call for Ireland. It was a great idea but it did not seem to be taken up. There are others, we believe, who could be doing the job rather than those trained professionals who are clearly needed in other areas of the HSE.