Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for outlining the future plans but, with respect, more could be done. The numbers waiting for first assessments have increased from 14,047 to 15,545. After the first assessment, people must wait for treatment to kick in. In that regard, we have gone from 8,326 to 8,974. Of the latter, 117 people have been waiting for over two years, which is really not acceptable. Does the Minister of State find it acceptable? Two years is an awful long time in the life of a child. We speak about early intervention, which deals with children between birth and six years, so two years from that is a big fraction of a child's life. Early intervention is very important.

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