Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I want to ask the Taoiseach about children's services. I understand there are 7,000 children in north Dublin waiting more than 12 months for an eye test. Recent official figures show there are more than 1,000 children waiting a very long period for psychiatric assessments. Data provided by the HSE to the Joint Committee on Health and Children show that children are waiting up to four years for orthodontic treatment.

If government is about anything, it is about making decisions that affect people's lives and that can improve the environment for everybody. Yesterday we heard the mother of a six year old autistic child talking on national television about the Educate Together school in Castleknock that has not been open for 12 months. The reason is the row between the Health Service Executive and the Department of Education and Science because of the embargo on recruitment for occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and behavioural therapy. Yet the six advisers to the Minister for Health and Children cost €666,000 a year. The mother of this child does not mind who provides the service so long as her child receives it. This school, and its autism unit, cannot open without the appointment of the specialists, who are contracted to the HSE and not the Department of Education and Science.

If government is about any type of leadership, surely the Taoiseach should be in a position to have this row sorted out today and to make this facility, for which the taxpayer has paid, available to provide the services for which it was intended.

See this speech in context