Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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We seem to follow the guidelines in every aspect of medicine but there is no correlation between 90 minutes and 47 hours. I would be interested to hear how the HSE can square the circle. Do the witnesses agree that the time spent waiting for assessment, diagnosis and subsequent treatment is time that people will never get back? The child is developing and it is a golden window of opportunity. In economic terms, there is a cost to trying to claw back the time. If a child enters the system aged five or six, perhaps after a grandparent notices something, is it not costly in comparison to dealing with the child when they are aged two? Do we have any figures for the children who are lost in the period between when parents apply for a child to be assessed and when they get an appointment? If 100 children wait three years, do we know what is the figure for wastage? What are the subsequent effects on their families if they fall out of the system, never to return?

Is the filling of posts because of maternity leave still an issue? Is the moratorium a historical, rather than a current, issue? Did Ms Gilhool indicate that, before a child is assessed, their parents could be sent on a parenting course? Can she elaborate on how this made her feel? It is very difficult for a parent to be put in that position. We know these conditions exist and that early intervention has better outcomes for children and families but there seems to be an ad hocapproach to it. If one of my children was doing something which I felt was not right, I would not know where to go. It must be very stressful and when a parent finally accepts the need for intervention they need to know whom to call. We appear to be losing a lot of valuable time that we can never get back.