Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Our duty is to ensure that all children in the country have the opportunity to grow up to be the best adults they can be and that people with disabilities, in particular, have all the opportunities possible to maximise their potential. We will never reach the point where anyone can say the work is done. There will always be more work to do in this area and more efforts that we must undertake.

The Deputy's fundamental point is correct. The money is not being spent across the disability services as well as it could be. That is not only the case with private sector providers, but also public providers and those in the charity sector. The solution we want to move to is personalised budgets which give people with special needs or disabilities a personal budget which they or their guardians can use in whatever way they decide is in their best interests. That will not be popular among some private or charity sector providers or even the HSE because it will challenge them all to provide a better service or have their service closed. Nevertheless, it is what we want to move to. Pilots have been done and a task force has been established.

In terms of greater accountability on the HSE's part, the Minister has already announced his plans to establish a HSE board. There is no board for the HSE and we believe its creation would improve accountability.

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