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

I thank the Deputy. I reassure him and the House that the HSE continues to explore a range of options. The targeted national and international recruitment for CDNTs is what I am talking about in terms of the end of the year. There is the sponsorship and the apprenticeship programme, the targeted international recruitment, with an agreed reallocation allowance, a sponsorship programme for therapy grades, an apprenticeship programme for therapy grades, employment of graduates as therapist assistants as they await their CORU registration, and an expansion of the therapy assistants in the system.

Only this week I met with Mr. Maurice Hoare from CHO 3. Believe it or not, while north Tipperary is an outlier in CHO 3, the vacancy rate in CHO 3 in children's disabilities is the lowest in the country at 10%. That is poor comfort for the people for north Tipperary but that is what it is. When I look across the border to CHO 5, its vacancy rates in some of its teams are at 54%. When I look to Kells in CHO 8, it has a vacancy level of 60%.

Talking and scoping are no longer acceptable within the HSE. Exploring has to be a thing of the past. Action is required as the funding is now there. Having that recruitment campaign is one thing, but it can only be measured on what can be converted into a person delivering a service. I again implore the HSE to be agile and pragmatic with the funding it has and to use it to attract people to disability services.

I say again that retention has to be our key objective in disabilities. By not having retention, the gap gets wider. The lists in other primary cares and mental health are driving down while in disabilities, they are going in the wrong direction.

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