Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are spectacular gaping holes. Regarding that, we had the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists, IASLT, the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland, AOTI, the Psychological Society of Ireland, PSI, and others in here. We have been told for ages that workforce planning has been sorted. When I listen to Mr. Higgins and others, I am not quite sure we are there. Ministers will say they will have this problem sorted in four or five years' time but we all know the retention issues. I want a real answer around where workforce planning is at this point in time.

We had those groups in. We all accept we have missing gaps. I accept what was said about looking at hub solutions and so on. That is the sort of stuff we need to do but we cannot have everyone operating in their own silo, where they may be under-resourced. I understand how there can be pushback. That will happen naturally. For example, “I have space. I can deal with ten people” or “I have 15 people on my books therefore I can’t deal with anyone else”. Nobody will ever admit to that but human nature and reality will tell you that is what happens. Those groupings said that nobody had a conversation with them on what the best that can be offered. That is on everything from assessments right through. We all know the element of how you do not need an assessment to get a therapy but you may need it if dealing with schools and all the rest of it.

The Minister of State talked about best services, about cross-sectorial services - we all love talking about multidisciplinary services - and putting the services where they would have the most impact. We need to look at schools because there will be bespoke solutions. We need to look at assistive technologies to back up therapists and whoever else. In most cases, we deal with disaster cases where we have missed early intervention. What is the plan to deal with that? Can we have a real conversation on what we can offer in the short term in order that we can then ensure we have workforce planning? Eventually, we will get down to dealing with people and a plan for life. I acknowledge I have given the Minister of State limited time.