We all need to acknowledge the work done by the emergency services in Wexford yesterday evening. I will comment on another part of the country, community healthcare organisation, CHO, 2. I am specifically dealing with County Roscommon, where we have been inundated over the past eight to ten months by parents of children aged between three and 15 or 16 regarding CAMHS services, ADHD and children with autism, where the whole system seems to be in disarray. A child aged three and a half had a blood test done that had to be sent to England for a diagnosis. Ten months later, those parents have still not got a reply or result, as the Tánaiste will be aware, because questions have gone to him over the past six to eight months. There are children who have not been assessed and no care plan has been put in place. Many children have no occupational therapy services or speech and language therapy. The reply when we write to the Minister is that he will send it to the HSE. Then, we wait a few more weeks and we get a lovely letter back saying it is due to staff shortages. In his reply to Deputy Mattie McGrath, the Tánaiste spoke about embracing the UN convention and treating all people the same. With regard to how these children are being placed, families are being put in a situation they do not want where they have to go to the courts to get what their children rightly deserve. I do not care whether there is a shortage or not in the HSE. The HSE needs to make decisions that if families can go privately, they should be told that their children, whatever services are required, will be paid for privately, if that is required. We have been going around in circles for the past six to eight months with parents getting frustrated. When I talk about frustrated, I have had parents crying on the phone, desperate to get services they are not getting. In the Roscommon area, it appears to be in total chaos. The letters we get back are constantly about staff shortages and retention of staff. Funnily enough, if you have enough money in your pocket, you can still get these people, depending on your income. I ask the Tánaiste to look at those cases and talk to the Minister beside him. Will he make sure the children in County Roscommon are treated the same as other children around the country?

I thank the Deputy for raising a range of issues under the umbrella of CAMHS and the availability of therapies and disabilities. Will he send me details of the individual child he mentioned?

There are ten or 12.

The specific assertion relating this case that a child had to have a blood test sent to England causes me great concern. It could be for specific reasons. I presume our labs cannot pick up the particular condition. That no one has contacted the family for ten months after the blood test being sent should not happen because we have primary care services. We need to get to get to bottom of that quickly. Will the Deputy send me the details of that case? It calls for clarity and a response.

On the other main point regarding children accessing therapies, seven or eight years ago, or perhaps longer, the progressing disability services, PDS, model was adopted. It did not get the resources in the early years because of the circumstances at that time. Resources have started flowing somewhat. There has been considerable disagreement regarding the PDS model. I have had considerable engagement with the HSE, particularly last year in my capacity as the Taoiseach. I convened a series of meetings around health and education, with the Minister of State responsible for special education in particular, on the need for children to access therapies far more quickly than is the case. It is working in some areas; in others, it is not so much. We have asked, in the context of special schools, which was agreed, that therapists lost to special schools be restored on a phased basis. That needs to happen more quickly and more in line with the dates agreed with the HSE. Access to therapies is a key issue and there is a problem with recruitment and retention of therapists in the area of children, paediatrics and in child services. There is catching up to be done. Other sectors of the health service seem to be recruiting therapists more easily than the child disability area, which is something I have observed, and it is not satisfactory either. We must get to the bottom of why that is the case.

More fundamentally, the responsibility for disabilities has transferred from the Department of Health more generally and from a policy perspective to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is at the Department responsible for children. There will be strong memorandums of understanding drawn up and agreements between the HSE and the Department responsible for children on how that will be rolled out, the allocation of funding and so on. We want a sharp focus on the provision of a sufficient number of therapists to enable children to access therapists far more quickly than they are. I acknowledge the issue. We have to try to solve it. It has built up over a long period.

I will furnish the Tánaiste with the details of that blood test and the ten-month wait.

Regarding services for speech and language and psychology, there is a ferocious deficit at the moment. Perhaps the Tánaiste did not pick up my point. If the HSE is not able to provide a service in the area and the parents are willing to drive somewhere they can get it, I ask that those parents be facilitated. Unfortunately, I know one autistic child near me who has regressed over the past six to eight months. That should not be. That child has regressed due to a lack of services. While I acknowledge there can be problems recruiting people and with retention, at the end of the day, we must invest in the future of those children and give them the services because there is a small window of opportunity to help them as best we can. I ask if the HSE is not able to do what it is supposed to and those parents are willing to source the service somewhere else, that they be paid.

Under the waiting list initiative, there is funding in that envelope for access to private care in the context of long waiting lists for access to therapy services.

This was provided for. Perhaps the Minister can engage with Deputy Fitzmaurice on how best to utilise the provision in the waiting list funding overall. The fundamental response ultimately has to be recruitment and retention on one level and working through the model to make sure it is fit for purpose in responding to the needs of the children in the first instance. As Deputy Fitzmaurice said, there is a short window of opportunity and developmentally it is crucial that these interventions happen early. Families and parents also need to be part of the input into the models that get developed. It is my view that parents have not been brought into play early enough since the model was developed originally. Parents have not been consulted adequately.