James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. However, the reply given in the House this morning makes no reference to the location affected. Considering that the location is in the title of the question asked, that is not acceptable. I ask the Minister of State to bring that back to the Department of Health. When a Deputy comes in here from a constituency and asks a question about an area, the fact that there is not even a reference to the area in the response is quite poor, to be frank.

That aside, I acknowledge that work has been done by the HSE to address backlogs and waiting times. I acknowledge the allocation of resources to this and the fact that there are areas where this has worked out quite well. However, we now have people in the Midleton area who have been waiting for up to two years for services. This is not the fault of the incredibly hardworking professionals that provide those services and I want to be absolutely clear about that. The issue is that the services are just not being resourced at a local level. Even before anybody vacated the Youghal position, there was a problem. That role in Youghal is now lying empty, unfortunately, because of the embargo and the person who left cannot be replaced. The caseload from Midleton has now been combined with the caseload from Youghal. These are two major towns. Midleton is one of the biggest towns in County Cork and Youghal is not a small town either. Both caseloads have been lumped into one office which means, unfortunately, that people are waiting for up to two years when the recommended timeline is 16 weeks. This is so wrong. It is wrong because of its impact on the young people who desperately need these services. These are people who need help to be able to speak and be able to swallow, two of the most basic functions in life. The people who are in the position of needing that assistance from the State need to be taken more seriously by the HSE. I also have an issue with HSE estates management with regard to its prioritisation of projects in that region of the country. There are lots of projects that are well overdue and that need to be addressed. On this issue, it is sinful to leave these roles empty. The embargo needs to be looked at urgently and ended.

See this speech in context