Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to point out an important point. The assessments are being done. There have been 10,000 assessments done over the past two years. Obviously, the court ruling has challenged that. There were 1,719 assessments done in the first quarter of the year. My understanding is the assessments are being done and that children are being referred on to different multidisciplinary teams and the supports are not there.

Since 2019, funding has been provided by the Government for approximately 475 new development posts, enhancing the network teams throughout the country, with a similar situation being seen in a lot of the multidisciplinary teams. The teams are not full - we know that - and there is the same issue with recruitment and retention. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has taken to having meetings in the various community healthcare organisations, CHOs, to listen to parents and to hear from those who are providing supports. I met with the psychologists recently. I will come back to that in a moment.

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