Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat. I would appreciate if we could get that full report as soon as possible when the Minister of State has an actual deadline. My last parliamentary question contains the same detail in relation to this issue. My understanding is that almost 530 whole-time equivalent positions were still missing or not filled at October last year in the children’s disability network teams. I would like some information in that regard because we are still talking about a very big hole.

I remember a particular meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Autism when we met with representatives from the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland, the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists and the Psychological Society of Ireland. What they said is that nobody had a discussion with them regarding how best we could provide services. I think we will all say we need to look at how we deal with assessments and how we deliver therapies.

I welcome the increases. I have spoken to the Minister of State before, even earlier today. We now really have to look at ramping up the school inclusion model and having holistic therapies in school where the need is. There is a fear. I understood from Adam Harris and AsIAm that families were worried it would be only school-specific. It needs to be more than that. We could still then provide the bespoke solutions required for those who need more acute therapies and assessments.

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