Mary Moran (Labour)

I welcome the Minister to the House and I welcome the national early years strategy which, she announced, went to Cabinet yesterday. I commend the ongoing work the Minister is doing in the area. I wish to ask the Minister specifically about early intervention in services for children with disability. The multidisciplinary teams are vital in this area. Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, dietetics and psychology are all vital services for a child with a disability and must be available in the early years. It has been shown that the quality of the life of a child with a disability can greatly improve with effective early intervention.

I call on the Minister to ensure that the funding and staffing for these vital services will be preserved. I have personal experience of availing of these services and I have seen to my horror how much they have been cut severely in recent years. It is vital that effective communication between these multidisciplinary departments is ardently encouraged. Often, those involved are too busy to link back because there are so many cases.

I call on the Minister to examine respite services for children with a disability. Sometimes, these services can be a lifeline for parents and families. Not only are they beneficial for children but also for others in the family who perhaps do not get sleep at night and for whom one night of respite care per month is their only respite.

Does the Minister have any plans afoot to instruct the HSE to accept private psychological reports? There is a significant backlog and a delay in providing psychological assessments for children in the early intervention years. It would be most helpful to ensure that there are sufficient school places available for the children when they reach four years of age.