Please Taoiseach, we have other Members. Deputy Brendan Smith.

I raise again the totally unacceptable delays for children with additional needs in Cavan and Monaghan in getting an assessment of need and follow-up therapies when required. Daily, I listen to parents who are very concerned, worried and absolutely frustrated that their child or children needing supports are on long waiting lists with no signs at all of early appointments. We all know how important it is to have early intervention and of providing therapies and supports in a timely manner. I am talking in many instances of vulnerable children needing these vital supports. We have families on limited incomes paying for services and incurring expenditure that they cannot afford. Children may need assessments to ensure that they get an appropriate placement in school.

Enable Ireland provides the Cavan children's disability network team, CDNT, services but with staff shortages, it is only operating at half capacity. Children with less complex additional needs depend on primary care in Cavan for services but again, there are unacceptable delays. Huge numbers of children in Cavan are on long waiting lists for supports and the capacity to deliver therapies, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and psychology, must be addressed as a matter of extreme urgency.

Again, as I said earlier, we are providing funding in the interim both to the HSE but also to private providers. Last year private providers cost about €6.8 million and we have allocated a further €10 million this year to deliver close to 3,000 more assessments and to boost capacity, with new assessment teams and so forth. Perhaps the Deputy could work with the HSE to identify private capacity within the Cavan area. Perhaps that is something we could work on, in terms of providing some resource there in addition to the HSE resource. I know, for example, that there is a zero waiting list for CAMHS in Cavan so it may be possible to do something on a localised basis.