Dr. Cathal Morgan:

I will ask Ms Crehan-Roche, who is the chief officer of community healthcare west, to come in on this as well. As for the big asks, first I wish to acknowledge the fact that we have had record investment, and I am not just saying that. We have had record investment this year of an additional €100 million, which has brought our overall budget to €2.2 billion this year. That is very significant. In the context of children and their needs, I mentioned previously that we had an additional 100 posts last year and another 100 this year. I am full sure the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is keenly aware of the need for new resources and I think is banging down a lot of doors to bring them in. I emphasised what is called the capacity review report. It is a programme for Government commitment. In that report there is significant emphasis on year-on-year investment, which has been costed. That includes year-on-year investment in new therapies coming into these networks. The investment has been costed.

Second, the Deputy mentioned quite rightly the experience of families of going from the nought-to-six early intervention team, then heading off to another team. The networks are seeking to collapse all those teams into one team in order that early intervention happens from the get-go and, as Professor MacLachlan said, that we journey with the child and the family through the life cycle, including when children become adults. That is the policy we are trying to implement. The important thing to refer to in that regard is this: we could pour significant amounts of new resources into this but unless in parallel we have change in how we actually work with families, it could be to ill effect from the point of view of what Professor MacLachlan said earlier. We want to move to a scenario in which interventions happen first such that we do not build up lists of assessments followed by another waiting list for interventions. Intervention starts straight away and keeps going. The change of practice and having standards and norms as to how we do intervention, with the child and the family being at the centre of the process, are what we are trying to work at through this progressing disability services policy.

It would be useful if the chief officer gave some practical outline to the Deputy as to how the policy has been working in community healthcare west as an example.