Carlow children's disability network team is in crisis. There are families getting YouTube tutorials. I know of one family that is in urgent need of therapies and essential medical equipment. South East Community Healthcare has secured some funding to tackle enormous waiting lists, but in many cases it is working on refusals from a good few years ago. There are preschool children who are entering school in September with no assessment. There are only 48 special classes between primary and secondary school in County Carlow. I know that families are travelling to Cork for assessments. I understand the hard work that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is doing on this and I pay tribute to her. I know that she is very keen to set up regional assessment hubs that would quicken the process of dealing with the long waiting list for assessments. I am asking the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and everyone to get together to support the Minister of State in getting these hubs set up around the country to get the assessments done.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important question. I think all of us, across our constituencies, are running into the same difficulties and doing the best that we can to help parents and families who are facing unacceptable delays for assessments of needs and for therapies thereafter. The Government is fully behind the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, in her efforts to improve the situation. The difficulty we are running into is not so much a lack of political will or a lack of finance, but being able to find the staff with the appropriate skills to fill the positions available. That is a real challenge, but we are not going to leave any stone unturned on this.