Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. On behalf of the Government, I want to acknowledge that we have a very real problem when it comes to children being able to access the therapies, assessments, treatment and counselling they need. Children are being let down.

It is not so much a matter of money or political will; both are there in abundance. There is a real difficulty in recruiting, training and retaining staff, as well as organising services in such a way that children and their needs are prioritised. Like the Deputy, I meet parents all the time who tell me about their struggles and the fights they have to go through to get the treatments, therapies and assessments their children need. It is impossible to justify because it cannot be justified. It will be part of the work programme of the child poverty and wellbeing unit being established in my Department.

As I mentioned, we are committed to reducing waiting lists. For that reason, we are increasing capacity and reforming models of care to ensure care is provided in a more timely way across all age groups. One measure being advanced at the moment is the development of community healthcare networks as part of the enhanced community care programme. Almost €200 million was provided in this year's budget to make that happen. The investment includes the development of primary care teams within 96 new community healthcare networks. Some 94 of these have been established and each serves a population of roughly 50,000. Approximately 3,500 extra staff will be recruited to make this happen. Of these, it is expected approximately 2,000 will be primary care teams, with the rest being specialist and intervention teams.

There is flexibility within the overall budget. It is estimated that €100 million of this will go into primary care. To date, 2,500 staff have been recruited or are at an advanced stage of the recruitment process as part of the programme. Furthermore, children and young people continue to be seen in primary care through specific investments, including the primary care psychology waiting list initiative and other waiting list initiatives the Government is funding.

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