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

I thank the Deputy for raising this question. It is a little bit like Cinderella at this hour, 12 midnight, and Deputy O'Sullivan appears. To be honest, we normally never get to deal with this number of questions. It is the first time we have done it, so I am answering this one totally unscripted. Luckily, I was at the committee today and I do remember what was said to his question.

Thanks to the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, who is here beside me, the Cabinet approved and ring-fenced €6.8 million, which is to look after 2,500 of our longest waiters. From talking to Bernard O'Regan earlier today, clear direction will be given from the HSE's national office of disability that the assessment officers will determine who are the longest waiters because they are the people in the nine CHOs who will have access to that information.

The HSE also has €5 million to carry out other assessments of need. That is going to ensure 1,850 children will have an assessment of need. At the same time, there is capacity of approximately 3,200 within our 91 teams across all of our services, which would mean that because of the additional funding, the overall assessments of need we should get through this year will be 7,650. That still does not address the fact we have 9,900 people who are overdue an assessment of need from a statutory viewpoint, and we are only in the month of June at this time. I have no doubt the figure will grow. Given that, we sought the funding in advance. Do I think they will get to it? Absolutely. Do I see it all done? I will ensure that when I meet with my disability managers, I know exactly what percentage they are doing each month.

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