Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will get the Minister for Health to revert to the Deputy directly on the issue.

I thank Deputy Flaherty for highlighting what sounds like an extraordinarily difficult and traumatic situation for Jacob and his family. I will speak to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, about that. I know there was some funding in the budget to try to have better joined-up approaches between CDNTs and our mental health services. We will certainly engage with the Deputy on that.

To Deputy Costello, I will talk to the Minister for Health about the need for public health nurses in the Old County Road health centre and the importance of those developmental checks and ask him to revert to the Deputy directly.

I appreciate that Deputy Gannon has been supportive of the task force. It took a little longer than planned, although not a huge amount longer. That was at the insistence of the members, who were independent. The plan now is to have a full implementation plan for the next three years by the middle of December. Who knows who will be in government by then. Certainly, I hope what we have is a blueprint for the future of our city and that we can debate in the weeks ahead how best to fund it and the sequencing with which to advance it. I genuinely believe it can have a really positive impact on our city and, in particular, on O'Connell Street and Dublin 1 and 2.

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