Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have no doubt about the bona fides and the commitment of the people on that committee. Clearly, in a positive way, they all have a vested interest to get it over the line. It would be interesting to see where the blockages are. Administrative blockages is a very broad term. What exactly are the administrative blockages? I had to leave the room earlier but I was following proceedings on my phone. As Deputy Durkan said earlier, we need to drill down into this and find out what the administrative blockages are. As opposed to a macro-examination and discussion, we need to do it at a micro level. At the next meeting, Ms Rogers might get us specifics as to where the administrative blockages are so that this committee can challenge the Minister to deal with those blockages.

As our new Taoiseach said a few times on these things, we need common sense. The common sense is that these positions need to be filled. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, committed to doing so in 2022. The Oireachtas, this committee and the Neurological Alliance of Ireland were given a timeline that has not been met. I do not blame the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, for that; I blame the system. However, we need to find out what the problem is. Do we not have people with expertise? Are people not applying for the positions? This committee wants to assist and can assist. We have been well briefed on the issues and understand them. We speak to the advocates. What we need from the witnesses are micro specifics on the questions we should be asking. Much of the time we are given a broad-brush outline of the issue. However, we are not equipped with the information to ask the specific questions to elicit an answer because it is so specific. We need either a "Yes" or a "No" or as near to a "Yes" or a "No" as we can get. That would be my suggestion. Perhaps Ms Rogers could come back to the clerk with those specifics so we can assist the Neurological Alliance of Ireland.

Ms Rogers spoke about the 12-week programme for community neurorehabilitation teams. Clearly, follow-up and aftercare are extremely important. When somebody is treated formally, sometimes the informal aftercare can be an issue. Ms Cotter might outline her experience with MS Ireland.