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

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and giving me an opportunity to engage with him on it. I look forward to taking away the four suggestions made by the parents. It is very important that children are fitted for their equipment in a timely fashion.

9 o’clock

It is very important for children who need access to wheelchairs as they grow that their needs are met. If they are not, other issues will follow suit. I hear what the Deputy is saying about redeployment or even if we could just introduce the HSE's own policy, the national access plan, NAP. The team we spoke about in County Donegal is a HSE team, as is the primary care team. Why can we not apply the NAP, whereby some clinicians working in primary care could assist in the crisis in our disability teams, if nothing else, even from the level of occupational therapy at this point so that children can have proper sitting equipment at school, at home or in the service they attend? That would be our one ask, that the disability lead - and a fabulous disability manager at that - Ms Quinn, work with me and her colleague in primary care. If we could achieve that, we would achieve a lot to start. The Deputy spoke about redeployment; I have looked at County Donegal at lot on this. The panel system does not work for County Donegal by any manner or means. I also do not think the recruitment system within the HSE works for County Donegal. It works very well for recruiting doctors and administrative staff but it does not work for clinicians in certain parts of the country. I would abolish the panel and make it available and let people travel as they so wish, as opposed to waiting for a vacancy to come in County Galway or in County Dublin, for example. The panel system should be abolished completely and it should be made available so that people can move to their desired location, as opposed to waiting for it. The other thing about recruitment with the HSE is that there is an internal model for when you go for a senior post and an outsourcing when you go for an ordinary grade. The recruitment agency within disability is not doing us justice when we have 700 vacant posts. I hear what the Deputy is saying about redeployment.

On support therapies and schools, I have given a lot of thought to these matters. Earlier, there was a motion and the Government tabled a counter-motion. My hope is to establish a ring-fenced support mechanism in the coming months which supports parents who access assessments of need privately. I am also looking at that in terms of therapies and what mechanisms can support families to access the package, be it six weeks of occupational therapy or six weeks of speech and language therapy. When we are not able to deliver the service, we have to look at another parallel process of delivery. Some 700 therapy posts not filled is the equivalent of €56 million unspent within my disability budget. I need to look at repurposing if I cannot deliver to meet the needs of the families and, most important, the child at the centre.

On schools, the Deputy is well aware of the school model. We removed therapists from special schools and it ended up levelling down the system. It did not raise it. We talked about equity of access. At the moment, I have partnered with the HSE in County Wexford. The Deputy's colleague, Deputy Kehoe, and Deputy James Browne were there on the day and we are now giving funding to the school to recruit the therapists. They recruited the three of them, would you believe, in the space of two weeks. There is full access to therapists in the school in County Wexford, meeting the needs of the young people. I am addressing that and looking to expand it. I have no problem working with the Deputy or Deputy McConalogue on it.

See this speech in context