In the past eight months, the HSE has disclosed that 84 families in Roscommon and Mayo have experienced serious failings in audiology services provided to their children due to either misdiagnoses or failures to follow up on results. A further 22 young people over the age of 18 years have been impacted upon.

Page 62 of A Programme for a Partnership Government makes specific reference to the issue of open disclosure and no-fault compensation. The number one priority for these 106 people and their families is to get access to educational supports, aids and resource supports. Some of the families and children are getting resource hours, but others are only getting reduced resource hours. We need to see a uniform allocation of resource hours and supports to these young people. Will a dedicated person be appointed within the Department of Education and Skills to co-ordinate on behalf of these 106 people and minimise the impact of this audiology failure on each of them?

I thanks the Deputy for raising this issue. I know it was raised in the Dáil a week or two ago. I agree with the Deputy's sentiments. The most important thing now is to make sure that those children and adults affected get the health interventions they need and should have got in the past, and the education and welfare supports they need. I am informed that some have, but it has been inconsistent and patchy, and we are keen to resolve that. I have asked someone in my office to pull together the main Departments - Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Education and Skills and Health - to try to resolve the situation.