Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely, but if I could just respond. There was a reduction of 95% in the backlog. This has to be acknowledged as very positive. However, the next point the Deputy quite rightly raised was that before the backlog was cleared, too many children were waiting too long for services. Now, more than 6,000 children have moved from assessment of need to waiting on services. What the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has been doing with the HSE is rolling out a new network of health and social care professionals teams. Many of them were hired last year. A lot more recruitment is required. I fully share the concern and urgency regarding the point the Deputy has raised. We have made huge inroads on assessment of need but that only matters if the services are there for the children afterwards.