Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I also thank her for giving us the opportunity to discuss the matter last night. Since I met with the Deputy yesterday evening, we have made arrangements to facilitate a meeting at that school at which representatives of the HSE will be present. When schools and the likes of the Rainbow Club in Cork are coming forward and stating that they have the ability and capacity to recruit, we should be working with them. We know that there is a problem with recruitment within the HSE. It is amazing that we do not have that challenge with other organisations. In that context, we have to wonder as to why the HSE is not able to recruit people. I will work with the Deputy on this issue.

I also take this opportunity to wish the new Joint Committee on Autism the very best of luck. It is an extremely important structure to have in place and it will give Members of both Houses a good opportunity to work on this issue. We need to work across Government, and across the various Departments, in a collaborative way in order to arrive at solutions.

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