Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)

I have a couple of follow-up questions on the 1,100 extra day service places for next year and onwards. Is there any way of ensuring that the assessments take place in the penultimate year of school? Throughout the country, and definitely in County Meath, there is a gap between there being no assessment or the assessment coming very late in the day, which means the placement in day service may not be the best match for the young person. If it was in the penultimate year, better forward planning could be done. Is there any departmental assurance that this could happen?

Second, I want to raise a flag about something that has arisen in my county. It concerns emergency planning for bereavement or force majeure. I know there are no mandatory plans, but is this something that might be looked at? It seems to be quite ad hoc, from talking to colleagues around the country. It goes from there being no planning to somebody having the mobile number of, perhaps, a disability services manager or a respite co-ordinator. That ad hoc piece is very unsettling if a force majeure event arises.

To go back to the figures, given the €260 million overrun, and notwithstanding what the Minister said about HSE digitisation, is there any departmental digitisation being done, or any linking in with early years public health nurses, in trying to forecast the services that will be required and planning ahead? I appreciate that all takes a huge amount of effort and time.

In relation to the significant amount of additional funding required for the Child and Family Agency, I note that there are savings on the pay side. I think it is €14 million. I wonder, though, if there is an issue there in terms of counterproductivity. On the one hand, there is a saving, but human resources are the very resources required for case reviews, handling case overloads, responding to emergency issues, etc. Are there any plans or interventions envisaged by the Minister's Department to try to improve on that?