I await with interest the answer to the Adjournment debate involving Senator Martin Conway. Was it on Joe Duffy's radio show yesterday?

On a number of occasions, Senators on both sides of the House, including Senator John Gilroy in particular, have raised the issue of early intervention for children with special needs who need speech and language therapy. I assume most Members saw the Inclusion Ireland report last week which highlighted the fact that 15,000 children in the country were languishing on waiting lists and could not access any services. Kids with special needs need help to set them in the right direction and ensure they reach their maximum potential and get support. In all parts of the country things are at crisis point, and this is more acute on the east coast and in Dublin, where there are no early intervention teams. The Government closed the waiting list from June 2012 in the north city and county area of Dublin. Children cannot be added to a waiting list to access speech and language therapy.

No one on the Government benches agrees that this is acceptable. It is unacceptable that we must continue to talk about this matter. I have raised it on numerous occasions, as have Members on all sides, but we are getting nowhere and nothing is being done. This matter lies with the Department of Health and it is too serious to let the situation continue. We cannot raise it today and then talk about it in a few weeks time when another report is issued. We are lucky because we have the ability to speak about this and put across our points. Many of the children who are waiting for initial assessment for speech and language therapy are unable to do what I am doing. What I am doing this afternoon is speaking on their behalf. If we are serious about building a fair society even in the toughest times, surely urgent funding can be put in place to resource the teams. In the north Dublin area, 2,258 children have been waiting since June 2012 to get an initial assessment and no one has been added to the waiting list since. Of the 15,000 children countrywide, God knows what is the real figure.

I am not proposing an amendment to Order of Business by way of confrontation, but I insist on the Minister for Health coming to the House to outline the Government's plans in this regard and to explain how we will tackle the waiting lists. Irish people are inherently fair and if we said we would need €30 million or €40 million to properly resource the teams and put a specific emphasis on reducing waiting lists, people would not have a problem saying we could not do such and such another thing because the money was needed to resource these teams. It cannot be allowed to continue. I have met parents who were being funded by charities to pay the initial fee for the occupational therapy report. They cannot afford it. If we are serious about this issue, let us agree that if the Leader will not accept the amendment to the Order of Business, he will set aside specific time next week to get the Minister into the House to hear our case and outline his case in a non-confrontational manner.

We should work on this issue together. It has been raised in the House on numerous occasions. All of us want to see this situation improved upon. It is so urgent that we cannot simply continue to talk about it.