Professor Malcolm MacLachlan:

We have developed new interim clinical guidance. We have received supportive legal advice about what is being developed and it has been signed off by the clinical forum, which is the highest clinical decision-making body in the HSE. We are waiting on a meeting with the unions so we can go ahead and implement it. It is good to go but because of our obligations under the WRC we need to have that meeting first. I anticipate that it would be supportive of it but that is where we are with that.

I want to make another comment. Notwithstanding everything Mr. O'Regan said about employment in disability services, it is important to emphasise that the jobs are intrinsically attractive. People really want to do the jobs and they get a lot of personal satisfaction from them. It is not that the jobs are unattractive; it is the broader context and the narrative in which people are doing those jobs. I take on board the importance of the point Deputy Cairns made about recognising the crisis nature of our situation. However, nobody wants to work in a crisis and it is difficult to recruit people into sector that would be described as in crisis. We recognise the huge need to address this serious situation but if we want to get more people to come into disability services, we have to show that there are positive jobs and opportunities for people to do the work they want to do to deliver the therapy rather than only doing assessments. I reiterate what Ms O'Neill said. One of the key drivers for enabling us to do that will be a revision of the Disability Act 2005, which is long overdue, as we have said in this committee previously.