Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to put a few points to the Minister and perhaps he will respond in writing. I would like to articulate the issues and concerns I have. The people running childcare facilities throughout the country have to be commended for the amount of work they are doing. As a society, we have to acknowledge and accept that this is the very foundation on which the State will be run. We are starting with childcare facilities and the various schemes being run for a very young people in their very formative years. We should compliment all those who work in the sector. As a State we have to be very careful to ensure they are properly rewarded and properly remunerated and that the services they give are properly accepted by the Government, the State and society as a whole. As a society we owe them a great debt of gratitude for the work they are doing.

Over the pandemic, we have seen many challenges and issues in the childcare sector. It has shone a spotlight on the challenges with regard to the orderly running of essential services in society. Therein lies the problem with which we have to grapple and look at. I want to raise a number of issues. Under the programme for Government, disability services are being moved to the Minister's Department from the Department of Health. How is this planning going? When is the move likely to take place? When will the memorandums be done? We are now seven, if not eight, months into the Government and we want to ensure this body of work promised in the programme for Government is completed because there is so much to be done in the disability sector.

Essentially, for those in the disability sector, we do not want bureaucracy to hold up the work that needs to be done. In questions I have put to the Department of Health again this week in regard to waiting lists for services for people with disabilities and assessment of needs, the replies showed up the chronic need for staff recruitment and for proper, thought-out practice. Young people are not getting the services they need and are not getting assessments of need. While people are completely dependent on the public service for occupational therapy or speech therapy, it is non-existent. We have to accept that right here and now, today, 4 February, it is non-existent. We are failing those kids who need those therapies. We have seen many families going private and using whatever available finances they have. We have to ensure this is highlighted at every level, that it is accepted by Government Departments and agencies, and that that challenge is met head-on.

The latest figures again show that the waiting lists are utterly unacceptable. I challenge the Minister to come back to me on when the transfer of powers will take place and how urgently the Government is going to tackle the waiting list issue immediately after that takes place. It is a fundamental issue. It will continue the good work of the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, in the sector. I look forward to further engagement.

As we are on the issue of disability, there is a huge crisis in regard to school transport, the way school transport is being carried out by the State and the inadequacies that are being thrown up on a daily basis for kids who need transport. I will come back to that in further debate.

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