Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

My first questions are for Professor MacLachlan and Ms O'Connor. Despite the aspiration towards making disability services more family-centred, it is not the case. The Cork parents' advocacy network contacted me after repeated failed attempts to meet with the head of disability services for counties Cork and Kerry. Many family forums in CHO 4 have yet to be established. When will they be set up? Will management in CHO 4 meet with the parents' network?

Of the 91 teams, how many are currently fully staffed? How many are 90% staffed? What is the clinical risk of not having fully staffed teams? When will teams be fully staffed?

I turn to Mr. Reid. Of the €350 million allocated for waiting lists, how much was ring-fenced for disability? It was of concern that in the 54-page document, "disability" was mentioned just once.

A new narrative is being articulated today by the HSE about being unable to provide interventions. That is deeply worrying. Mr. O'Regan talked about the legal requirement for AON but nothing else and about the need to strengthen legislation to ensure the HSE can provide better services. Professor MacLachlan said he is uncomfortable with the lack of funding. I think we all agree with that.

I cannot imagine how hurtful and frustrating it is for families and organisations watching this. We all know the Department's capacity review said €350 million was needed to meet the unmet needs of people with disability in Ireland. Approximately €65 million was allocated. Representatives from the HSE talked about the need for stronger legislation around this and basically said the executive needs to be pushed and forced by claims and different things into providing services that the country can afford to provide. It is a disgrace that we do not provide those services.

My final question is for Dr. Muldoon. It concerns one of the things I always come back to when we deal with disabilities on this committee. The Acting Chair and other members are also on the disability matters committee. One of the things we hear from individuals, families and organisations such as the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, as well as from the UN special rapporteur and others, concerns the need to ratify the optional protocol on the UNCRPD. That language is clunky and does not sound exciting but it could realise the rights of many people to live an independent, free life and have access to education and the services they need, which are the services we are talking about today. It looks like there has to be a legal obligation on the State to provide those services; otherwise, it will not do it. For the benefit of people watching, the representatives present and public representatives, will the ombudsman elaborate on the importance of the optional protocol on the UNCRPD?