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

I completely agree. In actual fact, I said the first day I became a Minister of State that we do not need 100% of a workforce but 140%, in order to ensure people can go on maternity leave. I agree with the Deputy on that. The HSE is back-filling. Funding was provided to ensure managers of the CDNTs could be back-filled. It is also very important for the HSE to implement its own policy, which is called the national access policy. That would mean that when a person goes in the front door and has their initial meeting, they should know if they need to be in the primary care waiting room, the disability waiting room or the CAMHS one. This idea of pushing people from one waiting list to the next is not acceptable by any manner or means. We need the three units to talk to each other. I am grateful that Bernard O'Regan has started that process, supported by Yvonne O'Neill, to ensure we have a true line of sight on figures.

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