Ms Ciara McKenna-Keane:

This issue was highlighted by the Joint Committee on Health in, I believe, July 2018. It called on the HSE to reconfigure the CHOs, recruit additional therapists for disability teams and provide those teams adequate resources without delay. Dr. Muldoon will agree that all of that needs to take place. There is a lot of great stuff to be found in PDS. For example, it considers needs as opposed to diagnoses purely. In this way, a child is not just reduced to his or her impairments and is instead seen as a whole person. National access policy is all needs led rather than diagnosis led. There is some good stuff involved and there are great professionals on the ground. As Dr. Muldoon stated, however, that if they are not being empowered with the requisite staff - Covid has presented an issue in this regard, with people being diverted elsewhere - and resources to conduct assessments of needs, as prescribed in the Disability Act 2005, with a focus on needs as opposed to a pure diagnosis focus, their hands will be tied. Unfortunately, we need to consider the issue of resources again in respect of this aspect of our report.