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

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I, too, acknowledge the role of carers, who are predominantly women, on International Women's Day. As already stated, I have a plan with the HSE on how to address the backlog relating to assessments of need. This will ensure the CDNTs can focus predominantly on the delivery of interventions. The Deputy is quite right in what she is saying. We have 707 vacancies. The funding is there to fill those posts. To be fair to the HSE, it has started to use international recruitment. That option was not there this time last year, but it is there now. We are looking at putting in assistant roles. The opportunity to do so was there this time last year, but it is there now. We are looking at bringing on board behavioural therapists and music therapists. We are also expanding the role in order to have a complement of staff and that it will not just be services such as occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and physiotherapy that will be on offer. It is about expanding-----

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