I too want to pay tribute to Cara Darmody and the tremendous work that she has done in achieving so much for children waiting for assessments of need. It is shocking that a 15-year-old girl has to camp outside Leinster House overnight for 50 hours in a storm just to make sure that this Government actually abides by the law. The Minister of State must feel mortification that a 15-year-old girl has to stay outside on a stormy night just to get what people are entitled to. The Tánaiste stated that he wanted to make Ireland the best country in the European Union to be a child. This Government is presiding over more than 18,000 children waiting for more than six months for an assessment of need. That does not even mean they have access to treatment, just that particular assessment. That is thousands of children who are not getting the treatment that they need and thousands of children, as a result, who are not reaching the potential that they could achieve. On a human basis, that is absolutely shocking. It is incredible that Cara Darmody made an agreement with the Government that there would be a recruitment campaign large enough to make sure that the staff were there to do the assessments of need. This Government implemented a recruitment campaign, but it was incredible and something that I have never seen before, since it was practically secret and the target audience, the people the Government was hoping to recruit, did not know that it was even happening. Cara Darmody today, in a press conference, said that it was like the third secret of Fatima. Nobody knew about the recruitment process. I believe it was deeply cynical. I believe that the Government promised to recruit but made no effort to recruit. The best way for the Government to say "No" is to say "Yes" and then do nothing about it. Cara went on with regard to trying to get therapists. She contacted a company from Britain. The company from Britain was very happy to help. We have the staff available to deal with the waiting lists, yet the HSE and the Government will not employ those staff. There are major questions to be asked about that. I know it goes to the issue of collective bargaining and so on within the public sector but we need to be able to target certain sectors where there is a low supply of staff with increased wages to make sure that we have better recruitment in those areas. The Government announced a new plan today. I believe it is really cynical. The Government is going to do an assessment of children so they can have an assessment of need. How do you assess a child before you give them an assessment of need? Is this not going to create another barrier which will slow down the process? It is a barrier that might actually keep children away from an assessment of need, make the waiting list go down and make the Government look better, but still bring no value to the child in receiving the services that they need. Regarding the level of funding, an Aontú parliamentary question about a number of different facilities and colleges found out that speech and language therapists were reduced from 370 in the last academic year to 355 in the academic year before the pandemic. The Government is going in reverse in the supply of students who will become the staff needed in these areas. I have very little confidence about the Government fixing this. I believe it should put its money where its mouth is, make sure there is an attractive package and recruit the necessary people.

Sentiment score: 0.13