Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will come back to that question in a moment. I am conscious that one of the group wants to leave and I want to say a few words before it does so.

First, on behalf of everybody, I think, and on behalf of myself as a parent, I thank all the witnesses for everything they do. They should not have to do it but they do it because, as has been said, they are child-centred and are thinking of the children and the needs of their kids and all kids throughout the country. The Government and successive Governments have let parents and their children down, and that is not acceptable.

Deputy Flaherty mentioned a case in respect of Ms Jenkins in my county and where we are at the moment regarding a disability team. We have 2.8 posts across the whole service. Last April Ms Jenkins, Deputy Flaherty and I met with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. In our county we had more than 230 kids waiting on an assessment of needs and more than 700 children waiting on services. At that time we had, I think, 11 posts. Now we have 2.8 whole-time equivalents: one psychologist, half a speech and language therapist, half an occupational therapist, 0.8 of a physiotherapist and no social worker. The reality is that we are not giving children the opportunity to fulfil their lives. Early intervention is early intervention, and that is what we need. I know from personal experience about going private. In particular, music therapy is something we did as a family, and I found it fantastic. It made a huge difference to my son's speech before he went to school. Some parents, however, are not in a position to do that, and that is not acceptable.

We need to call out the HSE. It is an absolute disgrace. The management of the HSE that deals with the filling of these positions on all teams across the country need to be called out because they are a disgrace and they are not doing their job. The Minister and the Government need to call them to account because their actions and inaction are failing children across the country. It is not acceptable. In other jobs and other lines of work, if you are not doing your job you lose your job and you are gone and replaced. We have asked the HSE to appear before our committee in a number of weeks to discuss the disability teams and the staffing levels across the country. What the HSE is doing now is disgraceful, as I said, and it is kids and families who are suffering. It is not acceptable any more.