Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

All of us, including the Deputy and everybody else in this House, will have a chance to put forward proposals to carers in the days ahead as to what we would do to support them over the next number of years. I am proud of a number of the measures we have taken, under the leadership of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, in providing additional payments before Christmas to our carers, as well as the double child benefit payment being provided today, the double pension payment provided last week, the fuel allowance lump sum payment that will be provided this week, and many more measures that I know make a real difference to people in County Kerry. I met them in Kerry. I met them in Listowel, Tralee and Killarney. I met them with a good man called Billy O'Shea.

The Deputy is right that we need to make more progress on assessment of needs. The Labour Party brought forward a proposal based on the advocacy of Cara Dermody, the young girl from County Tipperary, to utilise capacity in the private sector while building up capacity in the public sector. That is what we have done, and that has seen more than 1,000 additional children with special needs get access to assessments of need this year. I accept that is a model we need to continue.

See this speech in context