Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We discussed that last week. The public service must do far better than it is doing. There is no question about that. There must be proactivity within the public service, particularly on the employment front. We are not employing enough people with additional needs in our public service. The Deputy spoke about the means test. We will work on that, with the Minister for Social Protection in particular, but that is a budgetary measure for next September.

Deputy O'Sullivan spoke about CAMHS in the south west. It is a very serious issue and we will follow through. I make the point more generally that huge resources are being allocated to these areas. We need to examine how those resources are being deployed, what methods are being used and policies and so on because the growth in health spending has been phenomenal in the past four years. The population has grown and I get that. The level of need has grown; that is without question. We have to be a bit more forensic in looking at value for money side of it and whether we are using the best mechanisms and methods to help people.

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