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

I will start with the final question and work my way back. Deputy Ó Murchú referred to a ping-pong game. The HSE has a national access policy, NAP, which promotes an integrated approach between primary care, disability and mental health. It might not be done fairly or equally across all CHOs but there are some very good CHOs that are practising that model.

In response to Deputy Murnane O'Connor, I accept there has been an unmet need in terms of the number of therapists. When I was appointed, only 3% of the overall budget was left for therapy services. Since then, every single year, with the help of the Minister, I have secured serious funding to resource therapies. The Deputy is correct that there is an issue with recruitment, but we have a progressing disability services, PDS, roadmap that we will launch fairly soon. That will show the Deputy the way forward in that regard.

I acknowledge, as should Deputy Cullinane, that a lot of money has gone into new developments in the disability area. I hope that funding will be a foundation for the disability action plan when it is published. I look forward to his feedback on it.

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