Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

With assessments of need the big fear is that the Government is going to undermine that one right people do have. People are absolutely open to a conversation on how best to deliver assessment.

What are the witnesses' views on the CDNTs and that particular question? Has there been a discussion with the representative organisations? What engagement has there been with speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and psychologists? As a Member, I sort of made myself a member of the autism committee. I was not officially a member. I was shocked when we had the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists, IASLT, the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland, IOTI, and the Psychological Society of Ireland, PSI, before that committee. They said there had been no conversation with anybody from the HSE on what was the best way to deliver assessments and therapies. This is an absolute shortfall. The NDA's engagement would need to be at a comprehensive level in the review. Do the witnesses have any insights on that? It goes back to the fear that the legal right will be removed and that we will not have a complete discussion on how best we deliver assessments and therapies.