Mr. Kevin McCarthy:

We obviously have an agreement with the HSE as part of its national service plan. We sign off on activity levels in a given year in respect of that money and the considerable investment going in, as Deputy Murphy has rightly identified.

On the CDNT services, the Deputy is aware there are significant workforce challenges including filling vacancies. A total of 34% of posts on the CDNTs were vacant in 2022, the last full census of CDNT vacancies. This is a particular challenge. There is a high level of engagement with the HSE on how we can address this through a waiting list initiative and through additional funding to allow them to procure private assessments if they need to. A significant recruitment campaign has been under way since the start of the year.