Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Having read the opening statement, where did the idea to reconfigure what was there before PDS come from? I have heard it was because the early intervention and child development teams were working well in some areas and not so well in others and that the idea was to provide an equitable service across the board to everybody. Families have told me that it did provide equity but only in that nobody got anything. I take from what the witnesses have said that staff who worked in those teams were not spoken to or consulted with in advance of these changes. I know parents certainly were not. They were not consulted in any way or by any means. Ms Moran just described to Deputy Canney what was working well. A child being supported in the home environment and in the school environment sounds like it should work really well but, to the best of my knowledge, that is not happening. Perhaps it is in some areas but I represent the counties of Cavan and Monaghan and we have two CDNTs, one run by Enable Ireland and one run by the HSE, both of which have serious issues with recruitment and retention. The HSE team has slightly better rates of recruitment and retention than the other team. The pay disparity is probably affecting that.