Laura Harmon (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State to the committee. We look forward to working with her collaboratively. I thank everyone here this morning. I know the Minister of State mentioned Cork a couple of times and that she has been to Cork recently. We had the HSE chief at the committee recently. He said he has a particular concern about waiting lists in Cork. I know there are 30-month autism waiting lists for some in Cork recently. We saw recently that more than 1,200 people were waiting for an assessment of need. Would the Minister of State share his concern about Cork? Can she commit that the legislation for the six-month period in the Disability Act will not be changed? Is that being looked at? I know that currently only 7% are being done within the required six-month timeframe for assessments of need. We also had Cara Darmody here recently, as the Minister of State will be aware. Was there any engagement with her on her campaign about this?