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

I thank the Deputy for his contributions. He referred to the census. I must acknowledge the work done by Ms Angela O'Neill and her team did in compiling that. It is an excellent document and has been a phenomenal tool. The validation that took place on that is a fantastic cornerstone of the conversations we will have. I used the word "additional", but that is only in the context of the budget. Everything else is absolutely a go-to document for me. It would be wrong of me not to acknowledge the wonderful work that went on with that. I have been looking for that and it is important to acknowledge put into that Ms O'Neill.

We have reformed within the disabilities sector, creating 91 teams across the country. Sometimes "admin" is not a good word within the HSE. That is unfortunate because I need administrators to do their jobs within these teams. I have continuously asked the team here if I can have those staff because without administrators, it is the clinicians that are doing it. I want the clinicians to be doing their interventions because we are all talking about needing those interventions. Our commentary and language can sometimes hold us back in certain ways. I am saying that we need to have administrators on our time. We need a minimum of two because we cannot have therapists answering the phone or handling the clerical end of things. It is really important because we do not have them on all our teams. I know Mr. O'Regan and Professor MacLachlan are tired of me talking about this, as is Ms O'Neill. We need that. Sometimes we must cut people some slack and recognise that administration is a good and really important aspect of the teams.