Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

People have been talking about local areas. There is no dietician in CHO 7 at the moment. I was dealing with a family with a newborn child, and the child is now one and a half years of age. To try to see a consultant, the pathway would normally be through the dietician, but the family cannot use that pathway as there is no dietician. The only other pathway is to try to get a skin-prick test to see what the child's allergies or other conditions are, but that costs €180 and not everyone is in that position. Because there is no dietitian, there is no official waiting list and people cannot get the skin-prick test locally because the public and private sectors are going through the same avenue. There is a big challenge in this regard. That child was losing weight. The mother was pulling her hair out wondering what she should do and thinking that all of those supports were there. She was basically just told there is no dietician so there is no pathway, and she had to find a pathway herself. She is still waiting to see a consultant and the child is now a year and a half old.

There is no good news for that family and other families who are stuck in that situation, unless Mr. Gloster has good news this morning. Again, that is just an example of one job, but I am sure that can be replicated across the service. The point I am making is that having key personnel missing across the service is impacting many people.