Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is exactly why PDS was rolled out in the first place. There was an inequality in that there was the postcode lottery and it was not standardised. There were not X number of therapists to whom children could have access. In Cork, there could have been OT and speech and language, but from a multidisciplinary point of view, there might not have been psychology, whereas, in Galway, there might be four speech and language therapists but no SLT or OT. PDS is based on the geographical spread to ensure that children have access to all therapies. Anybody watching today will ask what planet I am on because we do not have OT and that is the reality of it. However, what we hope PDS will aspire to is bringing equity of access to all children right across the country. Regardless of their geographical location or whether they are in Dublin, Cork or Galway, they should be able to access services.

In the meantime, the PDS roadmap and the reinvention of it - or “take two” - was when we discovered there were an awful lot of gaps in it and it did not flesh this out enough. The Deputy and I will agree that OT, speech and language, physiotherapy and psychology are the clinical side of it, but there are other pieces that can also be added to it, such as social work, link work, music therapy, art therapy, play therapy and behavioural support. It is about looking at how we can support it and not just leave it clinically based, when there are other supports - even equine therapy - that can bring far more respite hours and interventions. For a child with no muscle function, having a trike that meets their needs is equally as good as having an hour with an OT so long as the child is exercising. It is about understanding that not everything needs to be one-to-one on a one-hour basis. We can meet the needs with universal support and team delivery, whether that is in the classroom, at a club in the evening or by going to things like Rainbow Clubs or groups dealing with neurodiversity. It is having the proper clinicians in front of the kids and meeting their needs.

PDS “take two” addressed that. Where we found the shortfall was that we did not have the therapists coming through, as the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, said. That is why we looked to the assistant therapy grade, the master’s programme and the clinical supports. It is a question of how we can spread it out and how we can add value to the art therapist, the equine therapist and the music therapist. We heard from the autism committee the wonderful work that they did and they were able to tell us all of the other things that can be brought into the conversation without staying blinkered. That is what PDS “take one” was to me. It was too blinkered, even though it was all about saying that we wanted to deliver a more equitable service. It was not equitable because we were staying blinkered and it was going to take us four years to bring people on, whereas we need to hit the ground running now.