Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

I am delighted today to host, as a personal guest, Ivan Doherty, whom I acknowledge in the Gallery alongside our former colleague Hugh Byrne. Ivan Doherty was a distinguished general secretary of Fine Gael and made a big contribution to democracy in Ireland. He then became an executive with the National Democratic Institute in America where he continued that work. He is currently a senior executive with Apple. Ivan has had a great career of public service and I am delighted to have him with us today.

One of the most sensitive and important appointments of the previous Government was the appointment of Deputy Hildegarde Naughton as Minister of State with responsibility for disability. I ask the Leader, as a matter of priority, to invite the Minister of State to come to the House to inform us as to where we are at with regard to waiting lists for assessment of neurodevelopmental differences and their subsequent treatment, where she sees us going in that regard and what stratagems and strategies she has in place to deal with this matter. We need such a debate soon and it is one I would like to contribute to. I appeal to the Leader to do this. As I said on the first day of this Seanad, the mark of a society is how it treats people who have challenges.This is a great opportunity, in this current time of plenty in the country, to deal with this issue. I look forward to this debate. I appeal to the Leader to make this one of his first initiatives.