Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It may well be that we may need to look at it at some point. Under the definition of value for money, it is not about what one spends, but the services one gets. Every one of us knows that some services are really threadbare. I have never met a parent with a child with special needs who was not an advocate with a big file under their arms. They are constantly just battering down doors to try to get services. Some people are better equipped to do that than others, and we know that. Sometimes it is not just about the financial resources; it is also about the wherewithal and the access to people. That is something we might look at.

When I met people in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 7, which is my own CHO area, they were talking about the assessment of needs as a priority, because there was a legal imperative to do that due to a court case.