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

I apologise. I am not an apologist for the HSE but, as Minister of State with responsibility for disability, that sort of response is absolutely soul-destroying in that somebody does not know who is on the system. The suggestions I have put forward to Deputy Tully and shared with the committee are mine. I have not seen the HSE's suggestions yet. I have a list of suggestions from listening to the members tell me how the system can work.

The PDS programme was ten years in the making before it happened, but there did not seem to be ten years of planning and delivery, because it fell between every gap one could imagine. Some 743 therapists are now not in the system and there are unfilled posts. I presented my suggestions as to how I think. I am not a clinician or a clinical need. I am a mere politician who is working with my constituents, as the members are with theirs, to try to find solutions. If I think my solutions might go some of the way, I look forward to suggestions by the HSE, which is paid for and tasked with finding solutions. I look forward to how it can bolster what I have already said to bring delivery in a timely fashion.