Mr. Bernard Gloster:

I will let colleagues deal with the autism protocol and the current numbers of vacancies on the CDNT side of things.

I discussed the subject of assessment of need with the Deputy's colleagues earlier. Assessment of need requires reform. This is not code for taking away people's right to it or for changing the timeline. It has become something it was never intended to be. Every single need across public services and across Ireland Inc. is now being tied to an assessment of need, either because people are led to believe they need it or they form a belief they will get something faster. This is leading to children who really need an assessment of need being delayed and children who do not actually need it being put through it. I have concerns about both those aspects. I have proposed to the Government and the Department that there should be appropriate reform to define what an assessment of need is for and what it actually means and is about. I think that will help. We can also help in the way we do our work and the way we approach assessment.

The second question that I was anxious to answer related to whether I believe that enough people are in the training pipeline. No, I do not, to put it in very simple terms. I am not sure anyone does. To be fair, the Ministers for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in the current Dáil and the previous one have both brought forward additional places and these numbers will grow. Quite frankly, however, with the way modern healthcare and social care have changed, with multidisciplinary teams for everything, we simply cannot serve the amount of need with the supply we have. We are not, therefore, just going to have to increase supply but change the way we provide services and work in that regard.

Dr. O'Donohue might respond on the autism protocol and outline to the Deputy what we are doing about it. We will then turn to the numbers.