Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My question is directed at the officials and concerns implementation. The Department is the oversight body for the implementation of the UNCRPD. Unfortunately, the Minister of State does not have control of all Departments and she cannot implement the UNCRPD across the different Ministries. I spoke to Mr. Brunell about this previously. How is the interaction and communication between the different Departments moving forward? How is it working logistically? Are we seeing results? The UNCRPD is about every aspect of our lives and the Minister with responsibility for disabilities is a siloed job.

Why has the HSE failed to deliver therapies in school as it has been asked to do? My preference would be for the schools to be the place where therapies are delivered so that they are part of a child's education and development and it is an integrated process.

Has the HSE considered signing-on or retention bonuses for CDNT staff? The Department of Education is looking at these. A significant gap in progressing disability services involves people and we need to push the boundary on everything to get staff into our CDNT teams.

How can the HSE outsource assessment of needs to the private sector that can be completed in less time, for example, five or six hours, but not assessment of needs completed in the public system, which takes more than 30 hours? There is a significant gap there in terms of time.

Should primary care and CAMHS be offering therapy time to tackle that assessment of need backlog? How many assessments of needs come from recommendations from the education side?