Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The one answer I did not get is the only answer I want. When will this child and all the other children get a service? If what is being done is not tackling it fast enough, what will the services do to tackle it faster? They have not got through the 2021 list yet. There is always a way. Do they need to pay more money? I do not know what they need to do. There is one thing they could do. I know one person from the area with one of the named skills who came home to live here. That person worked for the NHS in London and is fully qualified.

It has taken them a year to register with CORU. Mutual recognition of qualifications between Ireland and Britain and Ireland and the European Union is needed along with a quick transfer. The accreditation authorities seem to hold these things up forever when it is obvious that if somebody is good enough for the NHS, then, no disrespect, they are good enough for the HSE. We would take severe umbrage if someone in the NHS said somebody good enough for the HSE and qualified here properly, with degrees and all the rest, was not qualified to work in England. I am not satisfied that the recruitment processes in the HSE are adequate nor that this problem is being taken seriously enough. There is a need for crisis management. It seems that when it gets to the point of recruiting and doing interviews, it can take six or nine months to make an appointment. What kind of world are we living in? In the old days, you did an interview, provided the paper versions of your qualifications to guarantee that you had them, provided references, which were checked, and you had a job within three weeks. I do not know what we have done because nothing seems to work or move forward. All we get is excuses and children without a service. I hope the Minister of State carries back to the line Minister my frustration with this issue and my determination to keep advocating for those children who should get early intervention but are not.

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