Page 70 of the programme for Government says the Government will improve services and increase supports for people with disabilities, particularly in respect of early assessments and interventions for children. In the case of Laois-Offaly, I got figures just over two weeks ago which tell us that there are 1,850 children in the area awaiting occupational therapy. Some 1,022 of those have been waiting more than 12 months and some of them have been waiting for more than two years. There are 291 children in the constituency waiting for physiotherapy. The figures are outrageous. I understand that the Taoiseach has completed his first year in office this year. The Government is just over two years in office. The figures are at an alarming high. People and families who need access to these services are beating our doors down. As a doctor the Taoiseach knows that early intervention is the key to helping these people to go on to live independent lives and to be able to contribute to society and have a fruitful life. I appeal to the Taoiseach to ask the Minister for Health what he, the Department and the HSE are doing to address this, particularly in respect of occupational therapy in Laois-Offaly. I know the Taoiseach will not have that exact figure now, but I would appreciate if he could come back to me on it.

I am afraid I do not have the figures for Laois-Offaly to hand but I appreciate that there are people in those counties-----

It is getting longer.

-----and many others who are waiting far too long to access therapies. We have a recruitment programme under way for additional occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech and language therapists but we know from the bitter experience of recent years that more staff and more resources often does not make much of a difference. We need systems change as well. Part of the systems change is a new pilot programme around speech and language therapy in particular. We are now providing that in schools so that people do not need to join the HSE waiting list at all.

On the same issue, speech and language therapy, we are talking about the importance of early intervention. I am dealing with a number of cases in my constituency of Dublin South-West. There are 95 others ahead of a child in one such case. The child has been waiting two years and has now been told it will be another year. The HSE in Dublin South-West asked for extra resources in the budget but the budget did not cover that request. We are talking about three years for a basic thing like speech and language therapy. The Taoiseach spoke earlier about the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. That is fantastic but here we have the most vulnerable and they are not getting access to services. They are having to wait three years. The Minister for Education and Skills is here. Is there any possibility of extra budget resources for this? Clearly the system is broken in this area and we need to do more in this regard.

I gave Deputy Crowe fair leeway. Does the Minister want to respond briefly?

Very briefly, we have included 150 facilities - 75 preschools and 75 schools - in a pilot project for which he have allocated additional resources. We will be recruiting 19 speech and language therapists and 12 occupational therapists to service this pilot group. We believe that by integrating the delivery of intervention by specialist therapists with the work of the school teachers and the special needs assistants we will get better continuity of service and better outcomes for children. We are piloting it. It has to be tested. If it is successful we will obviously seek to expand it.

People who were put on the waiting list in May 2015 are being dealt with at the moment.

This is entirely separate. These posts are dedicated exclusively to this project.