Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy, and I will come back to him if I have those figures available to me. He raised an important point around early intervention. I refer to the earliest milestones, and a child not reaching them.

What is happening now is a lot of these pressures are coming into the education system. Where a need is identified we need to be flagging it much earlier and providing the services much earlier. That is where that single point of access to the HSE will be so important as well as us dealing with the assessment of need process, recruiting and retaining our therapists at home and abroad but also getting that earlier intervention through the primary care setting, for example. Just one area is not going to resolve this. This is a whole-of-government approach but the HSE, the Department of Education and Youth and my Department will also ensure we are reaching those at an earlier level and allowing CDNTs to deal with those with the most complex needs.

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