Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand what it is like for a child to be diagnosed with needs and for a child not to get services. I am a parent of a child with special needs. Like the Senator, I am a former school principal and understand the situation very well.

I also understand, as the Senator does as he formerly held my current ministerial position as a Minister of State, the challenges that exist within the system. In his opening speech he said that he understood a few years ago why every child did not get what he or she needed but now he cannot understand why every child does not get what he or she needs and inferred that there are plenty of resources available. I refute that inference and state that there are insufficient resources in the country. Despite having the largest health budget ever in the history of the State amounting to €17 billion next year we will not go anywhere near coping with the demand that is placed on that budget. Whether it is children with special needs or, like the previous Commencement matter, Alzheimer's disease, which affects the elderly, for whom the Senator cares a great deal, they are all competing needs. We also have acute sectors of hospitals and nursing homes. All sectors and all strands of society compete for funding.

To answer the Senator's question directly, it is immaterial what I think is a reasonable waiting time for a child.