I recently met the parents of children with disabilities where the children are either on a list or attending the Waterford south city children’s disability network team. I find these meetings very difficult because the story is always the same, unfortunately, with parents battling for access to services and children missing out on developmental supports. What they told me in relation to this team is shocking. We know there are staff shortages across many CDNTs but this CDNT has no psychologist, has had no nurse – or at least the parents have not had access to a nurse for over a year – no dietician and the number of occupational therapists has reduced from two to one. Even the most basic supports like incontinence pads were not being made available to parents for those children. It is truly shocking that parents have to battle for the most basic services. I ask the Minister to look at what is going on in that particular CDNT. It is obviously a problem across all CDNTs. They are not fully staffed. We have children across Waterford city whose parents are battling. Those children are missing out on developmental supports because the staff are not there. It is not good enough and I ask the Minister to raise it with the relevant Minister.

I am happy to raise the specific cases and specific area. I know it has been a challenge over the years to fill all the teams across the country but there has been a huge focus and a huge investment specifically in disability funding to try to fill the particular places the Deputy mentioned. There has also been a look at restructuring and how the teams work so that you are not dependent on perhaps the senior clinical officer to be able to sign off on various different strands of support that might need to be provided. I will raise the Deputy’s concerns directly with the Minister.