Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I speak on behalf of the approximately 750,000 people who have been diagnosed with a neurological disorder. We must bear in mind that more than 25,000 of those are struggling to get the services that they need to prevent disability and support their recoveries from conditions such as stroke, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. Demand for services is likely to accelerate dramatically in light of our ageing population and an increased number of people needing treatment for these conditions.

I commend my colleagues, Deputies Murphy O'Mahony and Kelleher, for raising this important issue. While it is great to hear support from across the House, Ireland's global standing on this matter is very poor. Our services remain underdeveloped and require significant expansion if we are to meet the coming demand, never mind current pressures. We need dedicated, multi-annual investment in forthcoming budgets in order to develop neurorehabilitation services, particularly in the community, in response to the significant level of unmet need and the decades of neglect and underinvestment that need to be righted. An implementation plan for the neurorehabilitation strategy needs to be published by the end of March 2018 with, crucially, a clear timeframe for implementation. We need mechanisms to ensure governance and accountability at the highest levels of the HSE and in the Minister's office and the Department of Health. We also need the establishment of dedicated community teams in each of the nine community health organisations, CHOs, with investment in 2018 to target current waiting lists in the community following the outcome of a HSE mapping exercise earlier this year.

There has been considerable collaboration with the NAI in tabling this motion. I compliment the alliance for highlighting consistently how clinical services are creaking at the seams, with staffing at critical levels. Occupational therapists are doing an incredible job. I know many of them. They need extra resources and staff to help them support those in need.

Our country has the lowest number of consultant neurologists and multidisciplinary specialists in Europe. We have a continuing emergency department crisis, which results in patients often not being admitted to neurology units because beds are unavailable.

Before handing over to my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, I will say that our country lags far behind the rest of the developed world in terms of neurorehabilitation services. We need to remedy that now.

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