Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I welcome everyone. On some level, it is always unfortunate that we have to address the issues that are being addressed. The one time everyone might agree with me is in commending Ms Darmody on the huge work and service she has done to her brothers and all the other Neils and Johns who are out there, of which there are a huge number. Ms Darmody said it herself: what we are looking at is failure here. We are talking about 15,000 being failed with regard to the assessment of need long before we talk about the failure to get therapies. We all know the impact of not having those early interventions. We could be looking at a figure of 24,796 by the end of the year, which is an abject failure.

Ms Darmody met with the Taoiseach and, first and foremost, put it to him that this is breaking the law. She wants to see that stop and the State following up on its obligations. What we are looking at is 530 positions unfilled at the minute in the CDNTs. My fear is that even if all those positions were filled, we still would not have the capacity to deliver on both assessments and therapies. Did the Taoiseach speak about any engagement there had been? I know when I was a member of the autism committee, we met with the IASLT, the AOTI and the PSI. They all said nobody had a conversation with regard to what even was the best means of carrying out assessments. I have no problem if we have bespoke means of doing that, underpinned by evidence and the professionals.

Was there any detail given with regard to finding a better way of delivering assessments and therapies, and any promises beyond, or was it what we are all listening to, which looks like just changing the law to remove the embarrassment of the Government breaking the law?