Tony Kett (Fianna Fail)

In a strange way, this is the kernel of what we are about here because for the first time, we will now be able to determine exactly what we are not doing for people with disabilities when the service statement is compared with the statement of assessment. This is something we were never able to do before; we were basically looking into a black hole. When this new system is up and running, we will be able to see the difference, as the Minister of State said, between service statements and assessments in the first instance.

I know that certain people will not receive what the assessment suggests they receive, which is something we will have to deal with going forward. There are a number of reasons a person might not receive the full content of an assessment, which may not be solely financial. They might be due to therapy availability. Senator Terry spoke about how difficult it will be to employ the people this Bill will deem necessary to the delivery of services. The Government took an initiative to bring about greater numbers studying occupational and speech therapy. These students are only starting to come on board now. We have 19 different nationalities working in the paramedical sector, as distinct from one five years ago. This gives some indication of how hard we have had to work in the last five years to bring about a situation where we could meet existing needs. We will now know what are the actual needs. For that reason, we must move forward carefully in this area.

I am not sure that listing requirements in order of importance is altogether achievable. I hate using the term "holistic approach" but when one is looking at the requirements of a disabled child, there is a plethora of involvements. These range from psychological assessments to physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, which all have a different input into the approach used with the child. Listing requirements in order of importance can be quite difficult.