Tom Clonan (Independent)

Thank you very much. I will just say as a parent of a now adult with a disability, he has never had meaningful speech and language therapy intervention. He has never had meaningful physiotherapy. He has never had any proper interventions and, as a consequence, it has had suboptimal outcomes for him.

I was in Germany last week in Mannheim meeting our counterparts there, and at a federal, state and municipal level, German citizens enjoy full access to assessment of need and all the supports and therapies they need because it is based upon rights put into their constitution in 1974. We are 51 years behind and it is my view that it is back to first principles. The only reason people get an assessment of need is because they have a legal right to it, and I would say we need to have the legal right to all the therapies and supports. The Government will then be led by the nose and will resource it.

I thank the witnesses and apologies for my having to leave.