Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I do not think there is too much we can say about the reports. They are very detailed. A lot of thought has gone into them. At the end of the day, we are dealing with a situation that is not of the witnesses' making. It is due to the HSE's approach to setting up the CDNTs when it did not have the staff ready to go into them and setting up the preliminary team assessment.

I remember families contacting me at the time to say they were not getting access to them. They were leaving areas where other needs of their children were being looked after by other services. Many of them were in limbo for a number of months when they lost a service such as that of St. John of God. They were wandering in a vacuum for months or years.

I have a question for Dr. Higgins. She said she believes 5,000 people need a diagnostic assessment for autism. How many of these have been reviewed? How many are still waiting for an assessment of need? Dr. Higgins said there are changes to recruitment practices for psychologists, including for the HSE national panel system, to tackle the recruitment crisis and staff retention issue. As a professional in psychology, what changes does she believe are needed? Unless we start putting forward something solid to support speech and language therapists and psychologists, we will not get much further. Accessing the assessment of need is fundamental, as is getting the children's disability network teams staffed. How do we do this in the short term and long term?

I am exasperated from the point of view of the witnesses with regard to their services not being available to families and children. What can the committee do to progress the witnesses' services? The witnesses have put forward recommendations. Waiting times for speech and language therapy and other supports is a critical issue. How can we get on top of it? Specialist pathways are to be established as part of the roll-out of the progressing disability services programme. There is to be a new configuration to dismantle the structure. There are to be new pathways to assess whether special supports are required. As a member of the committee, I am frustrated and angry, as are other committee members and as should be the witnesses, because of the situation at present for the families.

What can the committee do with regard to children's disability network team, CDNT, staff retention and recruitment? Dr. Higgins made the point that to improve the recruitment of trainee psychologists, there should be immediate funding and the issue of pay should be addressed. Can she see any recognition by the HSE that these issues must be addressed to deal with the recruitment and retention of staff? I do not think that, in the longer term, getting staff from abroad will fill the gaps. The time it takes to put people through training will still leave gaps for another one, two or three years. I am very frustrated reading what the witnesses have submitted and listening to what they are saying. We can try to turn it around if we put services in place.