Today, I will raise the issue of rehabilitation for children with acquired brain injury, which needs to be co-ordinated from the top down. Someone needs to take ownership and responsibility for the service as a whole and for the individual care of children. This should not be the complete responsibility of the parents. Every child deserves to get the same level of service and not be discriminated against based on where they live in the country. They should also not get a lesser service because their parents or caregivers do not shout loudly enough. I strongly believe that there should be a support person available to assist children throughout the country in relation to acquired brain injury. At the moment, fantastic community neurological teams are being set up and staffed. Both Ministers are working incredibly hard on the staffing. They are working very closely with Ms Mags Rogers of the Neurological Alliance of Ireland. While we have a strategy for adults, we do not have a strategy or a development for children. If a child has to go through Crumlin or Temple Street hospitals, they are then referred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital but we do not have hub and spoke support throughout the country.

We really need to have community rehabilitation services as well for children. These should be mirrored on what we have already in relation to our community neurostrategy, but we will need a programme manager and a clinical lead. We have the fantastic facilities in the National Rehabilitation Hospital, NRH and it was great to see that the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, in the capital plan, has awarded funding for the expansion of it. I would love to think there will be a space there for children.

We also know that when children leave acute hospitals they go home to their communities. Our CDNT teams, while they are good, are not equipped to deal with acquired brain injury. That is a specialism within itself so we need to create pathways to support families. The community neuro-teams for children would create that paediatric rehabilitation pathway that is required. I believe that there is a need and an urgency to develop a strategy. We have some of the best clinicians working in the NRH, Temple Street and Crumlin. We need to work with them to create that. There is a need for it as well.