Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the ladies for today. I am conscious of time so I will go straight into it. In Ms McDonagh's opening statement, she referred to holding the Government to account. I would like to know how Inclusion Ireland is getting on with that. It is probably a short question but a tricky one. There was also mention of gathering better data so as to plan properly for disabled children. Each of us here has a constituency dashboard taken from the census, so that information is there already. I would like Ms McDonagh to elaborate on what kind of information Inclusion Ireland was looking to get on that. She also mentioned multi-annual funding. I wish her the best of luck with that. We have been roaring and screeching about that across the board.

It was mentioned by Dr. Roddy, as well as the representatives from Inclusion Ireland, that the mental health system has been very frustrating. In the last Dáil I was spokesperson on mental heatlh and that was one of the big bugbears. If a person had any disability or form of autism and a mental health issue, then he or she would be going to England, in the best-case scenario. It is shocking we are still talking about that in 2023.

Turning to Dr. Roddy, the big item she has is the correlation matrix of unmet service needs. I read all her notes on all the additional ones and the gaps in that are frightening. They are probably the least expensive but most valuable.

I am referring to psychotherapy, music therapy and whatever else. I could not believe the gaps in that, in this day and age, while we are talking about how to improve services. The Inclusion Ireland submission also mentions 74% of children and adolescents were waiting 12 months or more and never got a service. Talk about a lack of services. I am going through them fast, Chair, because I only have one question.

There was also mention of transparency and accountability, as well as silos. Does Dr. Roddy feel that within the system, be it the HSE, the Department of Health, the Department of Education, or all of them, there is still that archaic way of saying "we are going to protect our patch" and that they are not working together for fear of interference?

I have two more questions. Dr. Roddy mention a report. What was it again? I want to see if we can follow up on that.