Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
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Yes, please. I thank the Chairman. Samantha is an incredible woman, mother and advocate. I have often heard her speak on the radio about the challenges she is experiencing, particularly with regard to fighting for an educational place for her daughter. What she does out of pure love in terms of supporting her children every morning that she gets up is beyond any of us to try to even empathise and understand.

I have a few questions to follow up from her very powerful statement. A lot of focus in the last 12 months was put on getting assessments. There was a huge waiting list and 92% of that waiting list was cleared but now there is a problem in terms of accessing the interventions that were needed. Could Samantha tell us a little bit about the impact of that?

Unfortunately, I have a very short period in which to ask questions. Samantha was talking about the housing adaptation needs. Could she tell us a little bit about the blockages she received there? Our local authorities need to be far better in terms of cutting out, as Samantha said, the bureaucracy and red tape in terms of providing the needs.

To ask very simply, if there were three things she could change in the morning in terms of accessing what is needed for her children to live a fuller life to the best of their capabilities and capacities, what would those three things be?