Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

On Deputy Stanton's question, which embraces the issues raised by the other speakers, the role of the assessment officer is to operate within the Health Service Executive system to identify the series of services that can be provided from within existing or planned resources. The HSE is working out the detailed arrangements for the practical implementation of the legislation. It is responsible for defining the relationship between the assessment officer and the liaison officer.

Nothing in the Bill precludes the HSE from ensuring a relationship exists between the assessment officer and the liaison officer. The HSE has already pointed out that the assessment is the initial stage of intervention and that it is therefore important that the assessment and the intervention are not divorced from each other. It is also important that those carrying out assessments are aware of and involved in current practice. As I said on Committee Stage, it is emerging from the HSE — its discussions in this regard are at an early stage — that there will be a person-centred, seamless approach to the assessment, the liaison procedure and the preparation of the service statement.

One of the difficulties is that the process of assessment is to be independent. The DLCG demanded this. Therefore, there must be a gap between the independent statutory officer making the assessment and the liaison officer who is rolling out the service. In response to a fair point made by Deputy Stanton, in the practical roll-out of services one can retain the statutory independence of assessors and, at the same time, ensure that a very good working relationship exits between them and the liaison officers. There is no doubt that, in some cases, assessment and intervention will be inseparable. We will discover this as we engage in the practical implementation of the legislation.

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