Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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There are many concerns because families are waiting far too long for an intervention. Nobody will deny that. While children were waiting for an intervention, assessments were being cleared. I made that a priority in that if I cleared the backlog of assessment of needs I could then focus on the intervention. That is what it is about. That is the nut I want to crack. I want to get families in front of therapists as quickly as possible. I want to get the intervention. I do not want an assessment about an assessment, which is what we have had in the past, where people went for an assessment of their speech and language to get their assessment of their speech and language. That is what has frustrated many people. That is not what I want.

Families should not know if they are on a primary care list or under a network disability team, when they go into a primary care centre they are assessing the therapeutic services their child needs. That is an integrated system and model but the mother or father bringing their child for assessment should not worry about whether their child is on this or that list. There should only be one door and that is to access the therapy. That is why we have 91 network disability teams. There is massive reform under way in disability services and in the primary care sector. There is a great deal happening. We will not see the results for approximately another 12 months but that should not discourage anyone listening in to these proceedings. We are trying to iron it out and work through it. We are cracking the nut on the assessment and then moving to ensure every assessment should be seen as an intervention and nobody should be waiting for months on end to get the final outcome of the assessment. When people are assessed they should also get a therapeutic intervention. That is what the figures say. To be fair to the HSE and the relevant Ministers in the Department of Health, everybody is working together but we are trying to tie this in so that it is interwoven. It should be seamless. Families should not feel that there is a gap, which is what we had in the early years, when a child fell off a list and had to go on a list. That is starting and that is what PTS is about. It is a seamless model and is being exactly overlined with the primary care settings. It is not aspirational. It is being delivered, as we speak, on the ground.