Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 85: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the fact that 445 people are awaiting assessment for occupational therapy in County Kildare and that seven and a half posts remain vacant in the service; the reason these posts have not been filled; and the action she will take to reduce the waiting list for occupational therapy. [20436/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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As part of the Multi-annual Investment Programme 2006-2009 under the Disability Strategy, the Government provided the Health Service Executive with an additional €75m in both 2006 and 2007. This funding included monies to provide new and enhanced services for people with disabilities, to implement Part 2 of the Disability Act 2005, which came into effect on June 1st 2007 for the under 5's and also for the continuation of the implementation of the transfer of persons with intellectual disability from psychiatric hospitals and other inappropriate placements. The Government is also honouring its promise in relation to the Multi-annual Investment Programme for people with disabilities, with a further €50m investment which was announced in the 2008 Budget.

I wish to advise the Deputy that almost 130,000 people work full-time or part-time in our public health services. In recent years, the Government's ongoing high level of investment in health has achieved and maintained significant increases in the numbers of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals employed in the public health services. The Government has also invested heavily in the education and training of such personnel in order to secure a good supply of graduates to provide for the health care needs of the population into the future.

Subject to overall parameters set by Government, the Health Service Executive has the responsibility for determining the composition of its staffing complement. In that regard, it is a matter for the Executive to manage and deploy its human resources to best meet the requirements of its Annual Service Plan for the delivery of health and personal social services to the public. The Executive is the appropriate body to consider the matter raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.