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

I am in the CHO 7 area where there is no dietitian, and that is important. If your child is obese, where do you go? You will try to get a dietitian. I made the point about a parent whose child had food disorders, so they had to go and get a skin prick for the child and they then got to the consultant. They cannot go directly to the consultant because the normal pathway is through a dietitian. These are the challenges and they are saying that they are to do with the moratorium in the HSE and the job freezes. That is why there is no dietitian in CHO 7. I am also interested in the one clinic we do have in CHI at Temple Street if the witnesses have time to address it, although I am conscious that Deputy Shortall wants to come back in. It is for children all over the State, so it clearly needs to be expanded. We do not have these local dietitians in the CHO 7 area. We are falling on our faces. I am interested in what additional initiatives the Department is pushing.