Dr. Niall Muldoon:

I thank the Acting Chairman and the committee members for what has been a powerful and forthright event. I will not use the names of those involved but I remember visiting a school before the pandemic where I met two parents with eight-year-old children who were in a special needs school and looking for support. Ten years earlier, those children would have died at birth. Our medical advances are creating circumstances in which children with special needs are surviving. We need them to thrive and, as others have said, live their best lives. We need to be planning for future children and not just catching up with the children who are already in special needs situations. The whole reason behind Unmet Needs is not to beat anybody up, apportion blame or say anyone is doing a bad job. It is to try to create a system that works for everybody as quickly as possible. We have not seen movement as quickly as we would have liked in that regard.

The move to progress disabilities, which started 11 years ago, is now in place. There are now 91 teams in place. I urge the HSE to take the lessons of the past and not find ourselves asking in five years' time, as we have done for ten years with A Vision for Change, whether full teams are in place. A Vision for Change became a byword for poor services, which is unfortunate. I would hate to see that happening. The thought, ambition and vision are there. We need to make them happen. We are asking what we can push the Government to give the HSE and what is clearly needed, whether that includes further education, more courses, classes, recruitment, senior posts and whatever else. We are looking to facilitate change to provide for the society that the UNCRPD envisages. We know that the new approach to disability we all should be using is to follow the concept that the society needs to change to facilitate the child, not that the child needs to change to live in our society. The HSE has a large role to play in that regard. In order to bring the UNCRPD to life, the HSE and the services that are assessed and provided are crucial. We need those services as early and often as possible so those children can live their best lives. I look forward to further engagement on these matters and to the output from the committee. I thank the committee again for all the sessions it has put together on this important matter.