Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. The two examples I have raised relate to primary care, but there are waiting lists for both primary care and CDNT. There is actually a lot of frustration and confusion even when children are referred from one team to the other. I know these matters fall to two different Departments, but they are all matters for the HSE, or the HSE with Enable Ireland.

Regarding the CDNT, the staffing levels have improved but there is considerable frustration from parents still around the lack of assessment. There are a lot of courses being run for parents on how to support their children. Parents are more than willing and able and are happy to do those courses but they are saying the children need the contact with the therapists and that that is not happening to the extent it should be. Some children have had no actual engagement at all with a therapist, or very limited engagement, and the parents are watching the children struggling. The same happens with primary care. The primary care lists are extremely long. What plan does the Government have to try to address this? There needs to be a workforce plan to put in more speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and so on. I could go on. I raised two examples but I could have raised any number of examples of different children in similar circumstances.