Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I could not agree more. It would be especially unfortunate if we were accessing the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, for children. My understanding of Cara Darmody's case is her family paid for a private assessment. They did not locate or find the person to do it, they just paid for it. When the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was before us, it was stated that there are 6,500 people waiting for assessments of need. We know if all those children were assessed in the morning the system would collapse and we know that is where the reluctance is. We clearly just cannot cater. It is clear to me what the HSE is trying to do is keep it at a pace where the services can cope if assessments are done and children are certified or given an assessment of need. Unfortunately, with the NTPF, when a child is assessed, he or she gets a date to be reassessed. We do not want to see it where we cannot go back for whatever reason and that they are going to Northern Ireland or wherever. We clearly have the capacity to do it here in the private sector. What we do not have is many parents with the money to pay for it, because it can cost anywhere from a couple of hundred euro to nearly €1,000 to get it done.