Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Collins and Kenny. This is a serious issue and I fully accept the Deputies' representations. I absolutely take Deputy Collins's point. We cannot have children not getting these developmental checks, we cannot have parents who are worried and we certainly cannot have the kinds of delays the Deputy has referenced. I will commit to taking this up at a senior level within the HSE this week to see what measures can be put in place. If there is a certain area that is significantly understaffed, and there is, we need to look at deployment from other areas. It is simply not enough to say that a certain community will just have to deal with these delays while services in other communities are fully staffed and getting what they need. I will commit to raising this directly with the HSE and asking for a rapid temporary solution. I imagine such a solution would involve some deployment from other areas. We will also see what can be done to accelerate hiring and to deal with maternity cover, which was another issue Deputy Collins raised. I am certainly not going to stand here and say that the status quo is sustainable because it certainly is not.

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