Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make clear that there are two different times. One is for assessment, which is the six to eight weeks, but the other, critically - and this might be the situation for the family the Deputy is involved with - is the waiting time for therapy, which is five months. Having looked at this, I do not believe that this is an acceptable amount of time for a child to wait when it is therapeutic intervention in the case of sexual assault. I have instructed the Department to work directly with the HSE to find ways to quickly bring that five-month period down.

The Deputy referred to a delay in sending waiting information. I will come to that in my final reply.

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