Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. As he said, Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and I had the pleasure of accompanying the Minister of State that evening in Clones when we met families and the support groups. Excellent work is being done by community groups throughout Cavan-Monaghan. The Minister of State would be very welcome to visit the area again. I know of his personal commitment to this area.

Whenever there is a shortage of resources there is a risk of creating a two-tier system whereby the children coming through the assessment-of-need option will be seen and the children being referred otherwise will not be seen. The danger with the lack of resources in Cavan-Monaghan is that Enable Ireland, as the service provider for children up to the age of six, could become an assessment service only and would not be in a position to provide the interventions and the services we all want to see provided for the children. We do not want Enable Ireland, for example, just to become an assessment service because it does its job so well and professionally in delivering services where it has the necessary resources.

I understand that in the Cavan-Monaghan area the number children aged up to six years of age presenting to Enable Ireland has more than doubled since 2008, which indicates the demand for the services and the need for the additional resources for that area. All of us through our ongoing constituency work meet parents who are utterly frustrated. Neither the family development team with the HSE nor Enable Ireland is able to advise parents of when assessments will be carried out and this is adding to the difficulties and concerns of parents.

I welcome that the Minister of State will encourage the HSE to ramp up its efforts to recruit additional professional staff to try to ensure this is prioritised. It is much needed as he recognised in his contribution and as he will have heard from parents and support groups that evening in Clones.

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