Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her response. As she is aware, up to 15,000 children are languishing on waiting lists for early intervention teams. The much-lauded concept of the early intervention team lacks the sort of supports that are required to ensure that the multidisciplinary expertise is there across the disciplines described by the Minister of State in order to give children at an early stage of life an opportunity to develop and have educational opportunities in the same way as any other child.

What plan does the Minister of State have to accelerate the specific recruitment of the psychologists? I am concerned that the advice the Minister of State has received from the national association representing that profession is being ignored in her approach. It is important that we both agree that the critical thing is to address the waiting lists. We have demonstrated in this Chamber that up to 15,000 children have been waiting over two years for assessment, which is unacceptable.

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