Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. As he began his contribution, I will begin mine by acknowledging the huge anxiety and distress that families can face when young girls and boys with additional needs need additional support and have various conditions that we want to make a difference to. We see what that does to them for their start in life, and what it does to their families, their mams and dads, who are trying to get the support they want to give to their son and daughter when they know they need it.

I also recognise, as the Deputy has done, those voluntary organisations and service providers outside of the State that play a very valuable role in supporting the State and those families who need the help we all want to see them get. I also appreciate the Deputy's honesty in acknowledging that despite the importance of this issue - and it is one we are doing our best to make a difference to - it is going to take time when time is short for those young girls and boys who need the help we want to give them.

To directly answer the Deputy's question around what the Government is doing on this, we are doing three particular things. First, at a political level, it is the reason the Taoiseach is chairing a Cabinet subcommittee on the issue of disability. All of us meet those families, children and their parents, and we see at first hand what that means to their journey in life. We want to better co-ordinate the resources that the State is making available, and through our budgets build on the progress we have made recently from a funding and recruitment perspective. The Taoiseach has decided to chair a Cabinet group to look at how we can do that.

Second, we are looking at what we can do from a supply perspective to ensure that we have those in our universities and places of higher learning who, in turn, can become the very therapists that we need. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and in fact all of the Ministers here, are working on this issue. What we are seeing in so many parts of the world is a demand for these therapists and healthcare professionals, and it is why the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, the now Tánaiste and my colleagues here have looked at what we can do in our universities to ensure the supply of these professionals is progressing. That is under way.

Finally, and most importantly from a recruitment perspective, we are making efforts in this area. We know we need more therapists and healthcare professionals but we have seen, for example, 272 more healthcare professionals in this area now, and an overall increase in the numbers working in that broad area. It is the reason we are putting more therapists into our schools, and it is the reason we are looking at what measures we can put in our schools early in the educational journey to make sure this support is provided at a time it is most urgently needed.

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