Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 11 May 2021

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth

Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (Resumed)

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I would be very grateful if the Minister of State, her Department or the HSE could communicate with the Department to correct the information or inform the committee because we rely heavily on these figures. I take her point and thank her for her clarification.

I will run through my questions very quickly as I am conscious of time. The interim review of the SOP is due to take place. Is there a set of terms and conditions or terms of reference for the SOP and will that include taking testimonials from parents? Following on from the point made by Deputy Cairns, it would be vitally important that parents would be part of that process. If this issue is a matter for jurisprudence at the moment, that would certainly worry me. As a member of the committee I would have to be confident that this is not going to be just a box-ticking exercise. I am concerned about the possibility that it is going to vindicate the existing SOP and then we are out the gap in 2022 with the boxes ticked and we must do retrospective work on what could potentially be flawed AONs. I am genuinely worried that we would have a problem down the line.