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

Where are we with this? This has been talked about for some time. The biggest challenge is the additional teams in CHO 6 and CHO 7, funded in 2019, which is three years ago, that have not yet been established. That is an indictment of the system and a major challenge in respect of funding. The Minister of State mentioned a figure of €2.29 million available for 2021 on an ongoing basis. Has the funding allocated to neurorehabilitation over recent years been spent? This is the envelope of funding put into it at the very start of the years 2019, 2020 and 2021. The Minister of State may not have an answer to that but I would appreciate it if he could get departmental officials to come back to me.

When we consider neurorehabilitation in the context of prevention or assisting better outcomes for people, the State, the HSE and the Department must look at the places that are falling down in a major way. There needs to be a co-ordinated strategy. By any standards, we are a small nation and to have a different set of circumstances or different outcomes because of geographic location is simply not acceptable.

How much of the funding made available in CHOs 6 and 7 over the past three years has been spent? Is it likely that the €2.29 million allocated for neurorehabilitation, which is peanuts, will be spent this year? When will the national strategy be launched?

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