Today is International Women’s Day. We know that women disproportionately adopt caring duties in the home. We also know the State's supports for carers are utterly threadbare. There are now 700 vacant posts in the children's disability network teams, CDNTs. Not one of those teams is fully staffed. Despite all the promises made by the Government to improve services, fewer therapy hours were delivered last year compared with the year before. The situation is getting worse, not better. Children with disabilities, and their families, must battle from the day they are born. It is shameful that their biggest battle is often with the State in the context of trying to get basic services, such as an assessment, essential therapies or even a school place. This abject neglect has disastrous consequences. The opportunity for early intervention is missed. Children's development is limited and they are prevented from reaching their full potential. When will the State stop failing women and their children? When will the CDNTs be fully staffed?

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I, too, acknowledge the role of carers, who are predominantly women, on International Women's Day. As already stated, I have a plan with the HSE on how to address the backlog relating to assessments of need. This will ensure the CDNTs can focus predominantly on the delivery of interventions. The Deputy is quite right in what she is saying. We have 707 vacancies. The funding is there to fill those posts. To be fair to the HSE, it has started to use international recruitment. That option was not there this time last year, but it is there now. We are looking at putting in assistant roles. The opportunity to do so was not there this time last year, but it is there now. We are looking at bringing on board behavioural therapists and music therapists. We are also expanding the role in order to have a complement of staff and that it will not just be services such as occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and physiotherapy that will be on offer. It is about expanding-----

There are 700 vacant posts.

I am aware of that. We are aiming to fill those.