Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No one should ever say that to the parent of a child. That is my point. That is wrong. No professional should say it and no official should say it because they never know the potential of a child. Parents know best, not professionals. I do not decry professionals. Sometimes even the best of professionals should listen, listen and listen. They should listen to the patient and listen to the parent. That can be soul-destroying and devastating to a parent and that is not acceptable.

We did decide policy-wise to move disability from the Department of Health to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and to have a specific Minister for disability, the reason being to try and give it more focused attention because the stories you articulated have been experienced by many of us. I am impatient with this in terms of a more direct link between funding and action.

I would argue - not everyone might agree - it is much better in the Department of Education. At least when funding is allocated for SNAs, they will be allocated to schools. It is similar with psychologists, through the National Educational Psychological Service, although people may argue about the capacity, etc.

The Department of Health has an overly bureaucratic system. We must work on that relationship between the HSE and the Department, and link it to the Cabinet committee. That is work that the Cabinet committee has to do. The challenges of Covid have not helped in the transfer of responsibility for disability from the Department of Health over to the new Department. That is key.

On the relationship between education and health, the Progressing Disability Services programme has been going on quite a long time and, as I have said before, we have argued that existing services and multidisciplinary services in schools should be retained, particularly in special schools. Notwithstanding Progressing Disability, we need to look at what more we can do within the school environment. From what I can see, we can get a lot more done through schooling than we can through health services at the moment, so long is the entire journey for parents and children. There is a lot of good work being done also, and we must acknowledge that.