Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I really think this about much more than votes. This is about trying to reform our disability services. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I are working intensively on this matter. We had a meeting on it as recently as last Thursday. Following a Cabinet committee meeting, we allocated significant additional funding of €6.89 million to provide for an assessment of need waiting list initiative. This will provide a further 2,500 private assessments to be delivered within the next six months, delivering on a commitment the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, made in this House based on the work of Cara Dermody, who was here on that occasion. To be very honest with Deputy Barry and with the parents of Ireland, a key issue here is recruitment. We ran a recruitment campaign and 145 successful candidates have now received job offers to work in this area, 53 of whom are now in the final stages of recruitment. We will run another recruitment campaign very shortly.

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