Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

She has been very clear and been able to speak to me directly, and I have appreciated those engagements, blunt and frank as they have been. She is an incredible young woman. What I would say directly to Jaden's mum Ciara - I would be very happy to engage with Deputy McDonald further on this - is that we have a pathway now to make significant progress on assessments of needs. It is not just me saying that. I genuinely believe it on the basis of an initiative we started in May. I saw the difference when we put several million euro - I think €7 million, from memory - through the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, into the assessment of need waiting list initiative. I saw 1,092 additional children get the service. That is why we have now increased that pot by a further €10 million.

I agree with the Deputy. It is to happen only alongside building capacity for the CDNTs. I will say this, and I said this directly to Cara Darmody and to Mark: we will map out exactly the impact that will have on the six-month rule, and I am happy to engage with the Deputy on that. We will do it in the context of the service plan. I still stand over the view, from talking to many parents around the country, that many parents want access to the therapies rather than an elongated assessment of need. Of course they want an assessment of need but they want that to be in as short an amount of time as necessary to give them the answers as to the therapies a child requires. That is the bit that I think we should return to with regard to changing and reforming the law. I am very happy to work with the Deputy on reforming the law in that area, if that is something we can share a view on.

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