Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. It was really good to hear from the parents Niamh and Wayne because they give a real living feeling of what people are facing. For me, early intervention is obviously the most important thing, and parents are the real experts. There are many families who in some cases are dysfunctional and I am curious how they are dealt with that. Some parents often do not have the skills and need experts to deal with that. They need counsellors and so forth. How is that dealt with? Holding this family-centred approach is very important. Obviously the priority has to be given to the child and that all the services are aligned with him or her. That is very important.

The Stepping Stones Triple P programme for parents of children with special needs is done in groups of one, two etc. What is the best way to do that? Is it one-to-one or is it something else? I am curious about that because obviously that is very time consuming.

Will the witnesses discuss the areas where services are available in Ireland and the need to extend the services? What is the main ask to do that or to look at that? I know Debbie and Audrey are in the services. I am more familiar with the Finglas services and I know them. What resources are needed, for example, in St Helena's resource centre? People are referred there from the Finglas counselling services and the people who work there are all volunteers. There is no mainstream funding. The counselling service gets something like €5,000 a year and they are all volunteers. I do not know how they do it but they are managing. The waiting list in Finglas, with which I am a bit more familiar because I did a bit of checking on it, is 36 people. This is only one area in Finglas. The resource centre is in Finglas south but it caters for the whole area. Approximately 140 people went through there in the past year. That number of people is phenomenal when account is taken of the fact they are volunteers and they are doing all this.

What is the evidence of outcomes? I am curious, too, about the training of counsellors. Is that up to standard? Is there a template for counsellors and how is that rolled out? I am curious about that. The integration into the community of people with disabilities is very important and how people are guided in that. It is so important that people are not left behind, be they people with disabilities, people with mental health issues or otherwise.