I raise the matter of waiting lists and times for children who require psychology treatment, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy in primary care in County Wexford. At present, the number of children waiting for psychology treatment is 833, with a waiting time of four and a half years. A total of 631 children are waiting for speech and language therapy, with a waiting time of two and a half years. In the case of occupational therapy, 1,312 children must wait more than three and a half years for treatment. The programme for Government states that the Government will invest in waiting list initiatives and enhance youth mental health services. What waiting list and mental health initiatives will be taken in County Wexford, where children are being left up to four and a half years without a service or a therapist, which is adding stress and causing further harm to those children's mental health?

There is a huge priority in regard to recruitment and retention within children's disability network teams, CDNTs, right across the country. As the Deputy probably knows, there was an increase of 17% in the CDNT workforce from 2023 to 2024, which amounts to the recruitment of 272 whole-time equivalent staff. That said, we need to do much more. International and domestic recruitments processes are under way, we have bursaries for postgraduate students and we have outreach into secondary schools and higher education authorities to raise awareness of the valuable work done by people in the disability sector. My door is open if the Deputy has any ideas for increasing staffing in this area.

It is an absolute top priority for me and my Government colleagues to make sure we have the therapists in place. The Deputy knows about the in-school therapies the Minister, Deputy McEntee, is rolling out right across the country in special schools and, eventually, in special classes in mainstream schools. Work is ongoing in a range of areas. In higher education, we have 150 extra therapists going through our third level institutions. We are also looking at therapy assistants and how we can upskill people through apprenticeships within the therapy space.