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

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. One of the biggest issues I have come across is people waiting on assessments. In CHO 9 we have had a major problem for a long time. I believe it has slightly improved and perhaps the witnesses can elaborate on this. On several occasions I met a large number of parents in the constituency of Dublin North-West in this regard. During lockdown, the number of mental health issues for people and young children went through the roof as far as I can see. There were many suicides as a result, not only with adults but with younger males and females. I do not know whether we have done a proper assessment of all of the reasons behind this but it needs to be done. Earlier it was explained how St. Helena's resource centre's counselling services work. St. Helena's resource centre refers people to Finglas counselling services. The staff are all volunteers. There is no mainstream funding. Have we ever looked at this? It is absolutely appalling that we rely on volunteers in a critical situation. Its outcomes are very good. I imagine its outcomes would be enhanced greatly if they had proper mainstream funding. Perhaps this is something the HSE could examine.

The issue of SNAs in schools is constantly raised by people who come to my clinics or call into my office. They have issues with children not being able to get into schools for various reasons. If they are not in the catchment area they cannot go to another school. There is always a block to dealing with such issues. We need a bit more of a focus on how they are dealt with. I am dealing with a case at present where the family of a child in a particular school have been told the child should be in a school that is nearer. Now we are in a big battle over this. This is crazy. We really need to look at these issues more carefully. Perhaps the HSE can tell us whether there is any flexibility. I am at loggerheads fighting this and it is not fair.

The children's disability network teams have large vacancy rates and waiting lists for therapies.

Can Mr. O'Regan fill members in on how that is being addressed? There is no doubt these disability teams work and it is proven they work very well. We need to roll out more of them. Maybe he can tell us how they plan to do that.