Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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We are way over time, but the importance of this meeting justifies that. I thank the delegation from the HSE, the Minister of State and officials from the Department for being here.

This has been a joint meeting aimed at trying to address the issue under discussion. It is important that it has been accepted here this morning there are failures in respect of children right across the spectrum. When I took the job of Chair of my committee, I stated that the Taoiseach would go before the Houses to apologise for the way the State has treated children with disabilities.

That was evident from the meeting.

A number of themes have arisen on what needs to be done. At the very outset of the questions I thought there might have been an HSE versus the Department of Health discussion as to what legislation needs to be changed and what needs to be done. From the way the meeting has gone, however, it is clear the recruitment drive needs to be made to ensure, as regards the teams that are being proposed,that we have the recruitment of full teams and the retention of staff.

I look at anecdotal evidence that we have received over recent days where, in the past two or three weeks, people who have been on temporary contracts with the HSE or with one of the service providers have not had their contracts renewed. They have had to proceed somewhere else to get a permanent contract because they were looking to purchase houses or to do the normal day-to-day living things. That has left vacancies within the service for people with disabilities, whether that is in respite, in the HSE or in section 38 or 39 organisations. As everybody here has accepted, there is a shortage of staff within all of the services. We have see in the past week or two that people have had to leave the services because the State has not done its business in ensuring those staff members were retained.

We have heard it from different areas that there has been a brain drain. We have people here who have given their time to caring, who understand people with disabilities, who care passionately about them and about improving their lives, and we need to ensure we are keeping those people within the services. The section 38 and 39 organisations and the parity of esteem in pay is a matter that needs to be dealt with because every logjam must be removed to ensure we keep all the good people in the services.

I made the point in the Dáil yesterday in another debate that the recruitment drive has to involve an overseas element as well. On the points that were made in respect of the higher education Ministers, we need to have everybody working on board here. The State, the HSE, the Department of Health and our committee here need to accept that, while this morning's meeting was a very thorough meeting, from here on we have to try to ensure we are doing something meaningful to change this. We would hope, if their schedules allow it, to have both the Department and the HSE back here in the autumn to review this. We need to ensure the issues that have been raised by the members today are being addressed and that the families, the children, the lives and the lived experience of people with disabilities who have been failed by the State improves from here on in. That is what our committee and everybody here is charged with, and we hope to do that.

I thank sincerely the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, for her dedication to the job, the HSE and the officials present, our own team here, all the members of the two joint committees, and Deputy Funchion for allowing me to chair the meeting with them.