Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael)
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I thank both groups for the work they do, and have been doing, supporting families, children and young adults over many years. As a parent, I have seen the benefit of equine therapy for my son. That is what led me to contact Mr. Doyle. I have seen the benefit that doing occupational therapy on horseback has given my son. The improvements he has made have been immense. I am amazed, as I think are other members, at the service down in south Limerick and north Cork. It is something we would like to see replicated throughout the country. I know I would like to see that service available for families. As has been mentioned by Deputy Buckley, the fact that it is free but that parents can support it voluntarily with donations, takes away the issue where some families cannot afford to go privately to get the therapy. To be able to provide that free of charge to that number of kids and schools in the region makes me quite jealous of what is in place down there. We spoke about filling posts and the reality is that there are 830-odd fully funded posts that are unfilled because we do not have enough qualified people coming through the education system.

In two weeks time we will have the Minister, Deputy Harris, and representatives from Trinity College and Dublin City University, DCU, here. We look forward in particular to hearing from the Minister because it is important to see if the Department has engaged with the HSE to make sure there are enough qualified people. I do not believe they have done so. The courses are there in the first place to make sure we have enough qualified occupational therapists and speech and language therapists coming through the system. We need to know what alternatives they are looking at now. We cannot wait five years for those staffing levels to come through. Something needs to be done, whether people move from the teaching or nursing professions into speech and language, and a one year course is put on to bring them up to accredited level so they can actually work in the system. I spoke to Mr. Doyle by phone a couple of times when I was looking at this and I contacted a number of people down there. They spoke glowingly about what has been done not just in the last number of years, but probably over 40 years to build that service from the foundation up. He speaks with passion as a parent, as does Deputy Ó Murchú. As a parent myself I am passionate about this, as are all the members of this committee. We want to see positive changes made. I hope that our recommendations when we produce the report in March 2023 will be implemented by Government over time. That is something incumbent on all of us, or on those who succeed us. I hope we will all be here for a long time and that those changes will be made, and will be positive.

With regard to autism assistance dogs, that is something we looked at ourselves. We tried to train a dog, if I can put that term on it, but we did not succeed. I pay tribute to the work done in this area, and I think the whole committee would be fully supportive of it. The sum of €500,00 is a very small ask to provide that service. As the transport committee is sitting, Deputy Ó'Murchú, I think that is something we can bring straight to Dublin Bus today. It is not acceptable to any of us. It needs to be highlighted and addressed.