Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With the decision to pause it, I have to be fair and say that perhaps I did catch the HSE wrong-footed with it. We are working on a solution to build up the team and not reduce services. By no means do we want to reduce any services whatsoever. It is all about building up the network disability teams. While a clinician or a post might still be held within a special school, it still forms part of Progressing Disability Services' wider team in the community, which overlays the primary care team. When we talk about Progressing Disability Services, it includes 91 teams across the country. Deputy Cairns talked about the person who needed to travel 45 minutes and that person might not be able to do that in a confined space. However, if we have network disability teams in 91 different locations right across the country, fully populated, that is the definition in its entirety of Progressing Disability Services in the community.