The scale of the crisis in primary care services for young people is so serious that the HSE is avoiding parliamentary questions about it. Only after 11 weeks did I receive a response from the HSE Dublin and north-east region on its psychology waiting lists, and no wonder. The longest waiting time there involves a child who was initially referred to disability services an incredible nine years ago. I have not received any response yet from the HSE Dublin and midlands region 12 weeks after submitting a parliamentary question, despite repeated follow-up by me. Primary care services for young people were neglected by successive Governments, long before the current recruitment restrictions and long before the official embargo. In addition, many young people are being redirected from children's disability network teams to primary care without the necessary staff being recruited to see them. Families are being passed from one waiting list to another for services that are so out of reach that they may as well not exist. Will the Minister commit to a comprehensive recruitment drive for primary care child and adolescent services? We cannot continue with a Government ideology-----

Thank you, Deputy Quaide. I call the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill.

-----that sees staffing of essential services as a cost, not as an investment.

I will repeat some of the things that have been said about recruitment. The numbers are up by 25% over that period. The pay and numbers strategy resulted in a net increase of 2,000 people into the health system, with 2,000 people who had temporary contracts made permanent, 2,000 vacancies and a net uplift of 2,000 people. I will be happy to provide the detail to the Deputy.

Nevertheless, we continue to recruit. We have several thousand more people to recruit this year. We are doing our best to meet the targets. I met CORU as recently as yesterday in respect of trying to get people onto the register as quickly as possible to be able to meet many of the therapeutic needs children desperately need.