Liam Quaide
Cork East · Social Democrats · Ireland
“The Department is not funding the teams. That is the main issue. There is a stark double standard here. In mainstream CAMHS, multidisciplinary staffing is treated as basic good practice.”
“I already established, earlier this year, that the staffing levels of CAMHS-ID teams across the country are abysmal. These are children and teenagers with very complex needs. They experience major challenges across all aspects of their daily lives, including with communication and learning.”
“I ask about CAMHS-ID services, which are specialist teams for children and adolescents with a moderate to profound intellectual disability and coexisting mental health difficulties. According to the HSE, and by its own admission, no CAMHS-ID team nationally is staffed to the level recommended in its own model of care.”
“This is a particularly vulnerable cohort of young people, and the lack of investment is particularly stark. The Minister of State should not look at me with an expression of incredulity because we have seen this across primary care and in child, adult and older adult mental health services. This is all out in the public domain.”
“Their needs are often more complex than those of young people attending standard CAMHS. I am asking the Minister of State for a clear commitment. When will the Government move beyond small, incremental additions year by year and fully fund CAMHS-ID teams in every region? When will that happen?”
“Worried, anxious, fearful, angry, afraid, powerless, terrified, scared, overwhelmed, abandoned, hopeless. Words like these came up again and again in a survey the Social Democrats conducted in the run-up to this motion.”
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“The single point of access is a sound concept and I fully support it. Young people are, as the Minister of State said, getting passed from one waiting list to the next and that is happening mainly because services have been understaffed for years and they respond to this by becoming more rigid in their gatekeeping of referrals. There is also an issue of power imbalances that we need to focus on. For instance, it is very difficult for a basic grade speech and language therapist or a basic grade occupational therapist to hold the line with, for instance, a consultant psychiatrist, that CAMHS is a more suitable service for a young person even when, objectively, that is clearly the case. I am hearing of concerns within services that psychiatry has not fully bought into the single point of access model in each region.”
“The Taoiseach told us this week that the single point of access initiative is being rolled out across child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, children's disability network teams, CDNTs, and primary care so that young people are not languishing on one waiting list after another. There is serious concern, however, within the services that buy-in to the single point of access is not consistent across all parts of the system, including psychiatry, and that there is an absence of a clear adjudication mechanism for contested cases. What procedures are in place in each region to make this work on the ground?”
“As happened in Cobh, all too often immense damage will already have been done by the time there is any investigation. Hedgerows are vital habitats. They are nesting sites, wildlife corridors and part of the ecological fabric of rural communities. They also help with the retention of excess rainfall, thereby contributing to flood mitigation. When I previously looked into whether there had been efforts to recruit for these long-vacant positions in east Cork, the responses I received from the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan's, Department were so opaque as to be insulting. This really needs to be prioritised for east Cork.”
“It was also appreciated by local residents. However, this episode really highlights the absolute gutting of NPWS resources in east Cork for years now, which has left the region entirely exposed as regards the enforcement of wildlife protection provisions. As I have raised here previously, it is incredible that east Cork has not had a ranger for 12 of the last 15 years. It has also had no district conservation officer for close to two years and there has been no regional manager over east Cork and Waterford for years. We are now in the extraordinary position whereby if something serious happens in east Cork, such as the destruction of hedgerows or habitats, staff have to be deployed from outside of the region, which only happened in this case following an appeal to a Minister, because the NPWS in the region is so overstretched.”
“I thank Deputy O'Gorman for proposing this motion today. It is particularly welcome because the protection of our natural world and climate action are foundational to everything else but have dropped off the political agenda to an alarming degree. Last week, near Cobh in my own constituency, constituents reported extensive hedgerow destruction during nesting season. The people who witnessed this activity were very distressed by what was happening. They reported it to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which told them that it had no staff to send out to investigate. They also reported it to An Garda Síochána but no intervention followed. I appealed to the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, to redeploy NPWS staff from outside east Cork. I appreciate him doing so in a timely fashion.”
“After previous growth, the total number of early intervention classes fell from 157 in 2024-25 to 149 in 2025-26 and Cork shows that pattern very clearly. Instead of strengthening early intervention provision, there is a clear reduction over time, with six fewer early intervention classes now in Cork than existed in 2020. That trend needs to be reversed. The Government should not preach about inclusive education while quietly reducing access to the early intervention provision that many children depend on in order to get into education in the first place. It is crucial that the Government acknowledges the distinct and irreplaceable value of these classes and commits to protecting them from routine redesignation.”
“These classes can help children develop communication, regulation, routine and many of the core skills needed to engage with school life. Investment at that stage can yield enormous benefits later in a child’s education and development, and I have heard that directly from primary school teachers and principals, who are deeply concerned by this quiet phasing-out of early intervention classes. Crucially, they are often essential for children who are not yet ready to transition into a special class. If we hollow out that provision, we will leave some of our most vulnerable young children without the support they need at the very point when early intervention matters most. The national figures point in the wrong direction.”
“In reality, it means that one essential form of educational provision is being scaled back to meet need elsewhere - a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The Government is getting away with this because it is happening gradually, under the radar, and because the group of children affected at any given time is relatively small. Presenting this as inclusivity is not just misleading; it is deeply cynical. A class that should be there for a new cohort of young children is instead being absorbed into the primary school system to patch over shortages there. Early intervention classes serve a distinct purpose. They can be the bridge into education for children who need intensive support at the earliest stage.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion to the House this evening. Early intervention classes are a pivotal part of the continuum of support for children with additional needs and autistic children who are not yet ready to transition to a special class or into school more generally, yet an insidious pattern is emerging in the treatment of early intervention classes. They are being slowly but surely phased out under the guise of inclusivity. A reply the Department recently gave to a parliamentary question of mine on this issue clearly shows what is happening. It stated that the Department of education and the National Council for Special Education are pushing for early intervention classes to be repurposed to meet wider special class demand. Incredibly, we are told that this is about inclusion and about meeting need.”
“When services are channelled through hundreds of separate organisations, it becomes much more difficult, if not impossible, to ensure a similar standard of support regardless of where a person lives. It also inevitably means waste through duplication, administration and contract management. What will the Government do to move towards a genuinely direct public provision of disability services, proper workforce planning and genuinely standardised rights-based support for disabled people and their families?”
“Does the Government accept that disability service delivery in this State has become extraordinarily fragmented and that this fragmentation is making it impossible to guarantee equity, to plan services properly or to ensure public money is being used in the most effective way? I ask this because a recent response to a parliamentary question of mine shows that the HSE now has approximately 1,172 service arrangements or grant aid agreements with over 494 organisations providing disability services on its behalf. This includes 226 private, for-profit companies. On paper, we talk about integrated, standardised, person-centred community services; in practice, what we have is a disjointed system that is haphazard, dispersed and, essentially, ungovernable.”
“This matters enormously in light of Kerry CAMHS where children with intellectual disabilities and autistic children were among those most badly failed with little or no meaningful multidisciplinary intervention alongside extreme overprescribing and polypharmacy. How can the Government justify this lower standard of support for some of the most vulnerable young people in mental health services?”
“There is a shocking double standard in how mental health services for young people with intellectual disabilities are staffed compared with mainstream CAMHS. In mainstream CAMHS, multidisciplinary staffing is treated as basic good practice. Yet in CAMHS-ID teams, for a group of children with even more complex needs, there is a far lower standard set by the Government. There is not a single CAMHS-ID team in the country staffed to the level set out in the HSE's own model. The services overall are funded at only 43% of the recommended level. In some parts of the country, such as Cavan-Monaghan, these specialist services do not exist at all. Elsewhere CAMHS-ID services exist only in the most threadbare form with a psychiatrist working with one or two other colleagues.”
“That same analysis also made the point that broad measures like the reduced VAT rates on gas and electricity were untargeted and benefited low- and high-income households alike, while more targeted options would be preferable. The issue is not whether the Government has spent money, because it has, but whether that money has been directed well enough and with a sustained benefit for those who need it most. This motion argues for a more deliberate approach, direct support for households under genuine strain, specific help for workers and sectors with unavoidable fuel costs, and longer term investments that reduce bills rather than simply soften them for a short period. That is a more focused response, a fairer response and a better use of public money.”
“Crucially, it includes Solar for All, which would double the solar grant to €3,600 and bring solar panels into the warmer homes scheme. That matters because it is not just about getting through the next few months. It is also about reducing bills on a lasting basis. That is a better use of public money than repeatedly spending large sums in ways that only shave costs off for everyone temporarily and so meagrely that nobody is satisfied. There is also a wider point here. The Parliamentary Budget Office found that when temporary cost-of-living measures were withdrawn, the poorest households were hit hardest, with average losses of 4.5% for the poorest tenth of households.”
“When the Government says it is targeting support, it is worth noting that it is spending substantial sums in a very diffuse manner. That is where the Social Democrats motion takes a better approach. It proposes a €400 energy credit for households earning up to €70,000. That is more direct because it is aimed at low- and middle-income households facing significant and increasing pressure with bills. It proposes a supplementary mileage scheme for essential workers such as carers and nurses. Again, that is more targeted because it recognises that some workers cannot simply reduce their amount of driving. Their transport costs are built into their jobs. The motion proposes stronger rebate supports for transport and green diesel users. That measure recognises the sectors where fuel inflation has the most considerable knock-on effect.”
“The cost of energy is one pressure among many bearing down on families already dealing with soaring costs of rent, groceries, insurance and transport. For many families, there is simply no give left in the monthly budget. The Government's response to the energy crisis so far amounts to a very expensive, broad-brush set of measures that leave clear gaps and whose modest effect will evaporate quickly if the situation in the Middle East becomes more entrenched. If you reduce fuel taxes, everybody who buys fuel gets some minor, short-lived benefit. That includes people under real strain, but it also includes people who are much better able to absorb rising costs. If you extend the fuel allowance, it matters for those in the scheme but it leaves out many households just above the threshold who are also struggling.”
“Will he commit to a clearer, fairer system - a more integrated way of funding in order that when population growth is projected, the amenities needed for community life are planned in line with it and not dependent on the remarkable innovation and drive of particular community groups?”
“Under the current disjointed system, families are having to spend years campaigning for basic amenities. They are being forced to become fundraisers, social entrepreneurs and project managers trying to patch together one disconnected grant after another while their town or village expands around them, and their children often outgrow the project before it is finally delivered, as in the case of playgrounds. That is not a serious way to provide basic amenities. Like so much about public service delivery, it is not fair, strategic or timely. These amenities need to be planned as part of the development of a town or village. In towns like Midleton and Carrigtohill, housing and population are growing quickly but local provision is lagging far behind. Does the Minister of State accept that the stop-start piecemeal approach is not working?”
“In Midleton, for instance, we drive to Mogeely to use the playground. Can the Minister of State say his Department has any clear way of matching funding to population growth so that we have a predictable, systematic spread of amenities or will our towns and villages still be left to fend for themselves through piecemeal schemes?”
“What people see in towns like Midleton and Carrigtohill is residential development moving ahead much faster than amenity provision. New houses are being built at pace and more families are moving in, but the facilities which are core to community life are lagging badly behind. There is a sense that many families describe of being in a town that is thriving but impoverished in respect of the most basic communities that matter families on a daily basis, such as youth facilities, playgrounds and skate parks. Does the Minister of State accept that if funding is not systematically matched to population growth this is exactly what happens? We get housing estate after housing estate but not the facilities needed to build a connected community. We get long, frustrating drives to other towns or even villages to have basic community needs met.”
“How can the Minister of State ensure that funding from his Department is shared fairly across regions, especially in areas of major population growth? Is there any clear formula for matching that funding to population growth? I ask this with particular reference to Midleton and Carrigtwohill where major population increases are projected over the next decade, but where local amenities are plainly not keeping pace. By 2034, the population of Midleton is expected to grow by 100% from where it was in 2022, while the estimate for Carrigtohill is in the region of 172% in that 12 years. That is a doubling and almost tripling of the population of those two towns.”
“I am calling on the Minister of State to commit to providing further resources to the public bodies involved in implementing the legislation to ensure that those impacted have their human rights fully upheld. This includes additional resources to the bodies I mentioned. It is important that we have that concrete commitment as we proceed with this legislation.”
“The National Disability Authority research notes that despite information efforts by public bodies, many wards and committees experience what was described as an "information vacuum" and confusion about roles and responsibilities within the system. That tells us that issuing information is not the same as ensuring understanding to a reasonable degree. In the transition to rights-based in practice, accessible formats, practical navigation supports and independent advocacy must be consistently available. Where extensions are granted, the additional time should be used actively to support informed participation. There has been a failure to appropriately resource the public bodies most involved in the implementation of the Act, such as the Decision Support Service, Legal Aid Board and National Advocacy Service in order to achieve that goal.”
“I echo the point made by Deputy Ó Murchú. Research undertaken by the National Disability Authority has indicated that people have not been supported sufficiently to understand what the end of the wardship system means for them and those supporting them. We must ensure that all those who come within the scope of the original Act, namely, disabled people, older people and people with severe mental health difficulties have a legal right to accessible information, meaningful engagement and practical supports, including independent advocacy. That is a crucial point in terms of upholding human rights.”
“Providing these workers, who sacrificed so much on all of our behalf, with financial security would be a minimal cost to the State but would make a profound difference to their lives and to their peace of mind. The group that met the Taoiseach last June urgently needs to meet him again. I know the Taoiseach has been extremely busy recently, but I implore him to make time for that soon.”
“I have had a couple of adversarial exchanges with the Taoiseach in this House, but I will be the first person to applaud him if he intervenes in the situation facing healthcare workers with long Covid. He met a group of these workers last June. He knows that their case is genuine and that they have suffered terribly not just with their symptoms but also with being on a financial cliff edge every six or 12 months as their special Covid leave with pay was due to end. Their circumstances are extremely difficult. They are about to transition onto half of their basic salary on the standard sick leave scheme, and they are facing not being able to pay their mortgages soon.”
“In January, I was told that the HSE did not maintain data on approved posts for these services, which is frankly farcical. The HSE's 2019 model of care for older persons, which contained clear staffing targets, disappeared offline shortly after I submitted my first parliamentary question, only to reappear immediately after the media queried its absence. What commitment can the Taoiseach give to the funding of multidisciplinary posts for older adult mental health teams?”
“The mental health strategy, A Vision for Change, is now 20 years old, but the State is still nowhere near providing the specialist multidisciplinary teams it promised for older people in that document. There are large parts of the country, including Dublin south-west, Limerick city-Tipperary north, Cork north and east, and Cork south and west, where the HSE has approved no occupational therapy posts at all for older adult mental health services. There are no approved psychology posts in Kildare-west Wicklow or Donegal. These are essential therapies to help to support older people and their families as they face mental health challenges in the context of ageing. What makes this even more serious is the lengths to which the HSE went to obscure these shortfalls.”
“It must be particularly careful in respect of young people. The move away from wardship was grounded in principles of autonomy, dignity and recognition of legal personhood. This amendment must preserve that spirit. If implemented with discipline and transparency, it could provide legal uncertainty while safeguarding the integrity of the original reform. If not, it risks signalling that deadlines in rights-based reform are elastic. The people affected deserve better than elastic timelines. They deserve clarity, dignity and completion of a reform that has been long promised. I look forward to constructive engagement on Committee Stage to ensure the ambition of the 2015 Act is realised fully in practice.”
“Seventh, concerns have been raised regarding potential inconsistencies between the assisted decision-making framework and the mental health amendment legislation, particularly in relation to advance healthcare directives. It is vital that the Minister clarifies how coherence between these two frameworks can be ensured and how Ireland's human rights obligations will be upheld across both regimes. I do not believe it would be responsible to allow a legal vacuum to arise, and on that basis, we will support the Bill at this stage. However, support for avoiding legal uncertainty should not be mistaken for complacency. This extension must be temporary, tightly defined, matched with resourcing, accompanied by regular reporting and reviews, and focused on meaningful engagement with wards of court.”
“Sixth, the Act provides for a statutory review of its operation within five years of the commencement of the relevant 2022 amendment provisions, effectively pointing to a review around 2028. That review must be robust. There remains ongoing academic and legal debate about the extent to which the current functional assessment model fully aligns with Article 12 of the UNCRPD. That debate should be engaged with seriously and transparently. The Minister should set out how the review will be structured, how those most affected will be meaningfully involved, and how lessons from the wardship discharge process will inform future amendments. Reform of this magnitude is iterative. It requires ongoing evaluation and refinement.”
“While the delay affecting minors arises from systemic backlog rather than age-specific rules, particular care should be taken to ensure that young people turning 18 are prioritised so that they do not experience avoidable delay in entering adulthood under the new framework. Fifth, the NDA research also highlights a related structural issue. There is increased resort to the High Court's inherent jurisdiction in detention-related cases in the absence of a complete statutory framework. That development has significant resource implications and underscores the urgency of progressing protection of liberty and safeguards legislation. If we are serious about reducing court backlog and ensuring coherent legal architecture, this cannot be deferred.”
“Legal capacity is not a technical formality; it is recognition that adults have the right to participate in decisions affecting their lives to the fullest extent possible. That participation must be meaningful. Fourth, as Deputy Gould referred to, an issue arises in relation to minors who are wards of court. If an extension mechanism operates in a way that carries wardship beyond the young person's 18th birthday, we risk denying them entry into adulthood under the new rights-based framework at a critical life stage. That would be a serious consequence arising not from individual circumstances but from systemic delay. This warrants careful examination on Committee Stage. Turning 18 should mark entry into adulthood under a modern decision-making framework, not continuation under a legacy regime by default.”
“The NDA research records that despite significant information efforts by public bodies, many wards and committees experienced what was described as "an information vacuum" and confusion about roles and responsibilities in the new system. This tells us that issuing information is not the same as ensuring understanding to a reasonable degree. If the transition is to be rights-based in practice, accessible formats, practical navigation supports and independent advocacy must be consistently available. Where extensions are granted, the additional time should be used actively to support informed participation, not simply to maintain the status quo . The reform was grounded in recognition of personhood.”
“These are serious legal standards but they are quite broad and experts at the centre of disability law and policy in Galway have expressed concern that without clear parameters, the discretion may be too open-ended. We therefore need to consider whether the legislation should clarify what constitutes "good reason", explicitly require that any extension be strictly necessary and proportionate, and link extensions to demonstrable steps required to facilitate meaningful engagement and transition. An extension should be a bridge to completion, not a resetting of the clock. Third, the Bill provides that wards are to be notified of proceedings. Notification alone is not enough.”
“Research undertaken by the NDA identifies several practical barriers to discharge, including fear and uncertainty about the management of funds after discharge, reluctance to move from a familiar system to a new and untested one, complexity and resource intensity of proceedings, and confusion about the role of the decision support service. If we are extending the deadline, the Minister must set out clearly what additional resourcing and structural measures are being put in place to ensure completion within the extended period. Second, the Bill proposes to allow the High Court to extend the discharge period where "good reason has been shown" and "it is in the interests of justice to do so", subject to an overall long-stop date of 25 October 2027.”
“I do not believe it would be responsible to allow a statutory cliff-edge to arise. For that reason, the Social Democrats will not oppose the Bill at this stage. However, there is no doubt that this Bill must be strengthened if it is to preserve the integrity of the original reform. Firstly, annual reporting since 2023 has made clear that the pace of discharge was not on course to meet the target. We are therefore entitled to ask whether sufficient planning was undertaken at commencement and whether the DSS, the Legal Aid Board, the National Advocacy Service for People with Disabilities and the Courts Service were adequately resourced to meet the volume anticipated. Were sufficient court medical visitors and assessors available? Was structured, accessible engagement with wards and committees commenced early enough?”
“The Act provided that all adults in wardship were to exit that system within three years of commencement of the new process, that is, by 26 April 2026. It is now clear that this deadline will not be met. Research recently published by the National Disability Authority, NDA, drawing from data of the office of wards of court, sets out the position clearly. Some 2,173 adults were in wardship at the commencement of the new process in April 2023. By the end of November 2025, 250 had been discharged, so 1,602 adults remained in wardship, or approximately 74% of the original cohort. The discharge process has advanced, but at a much slower pace than envisaged. In that context, there is a real risk of legal uncertainty if no legislative provision is made for cases not concluded by April 2026.”
“The assisted decision-making Act represented one of the most significant legal reforms in the history of the State. It abolished the adult wardship system, repealed the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act 1871 and replaced a plenary substitute decision-making model with a graduated rights-based framework designed to support autonomy and maximise decision-making capacity. Its full commencement in April 2023 marked a profound shift in how the State understands legal capacity, moving Ireland closer to compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and to our own constitutional principles of dignity and autonomy. That reform was long called for by disabled people and their advocates and was very welcome.”
“If we are serious about participation, dignity and economic independence for disabled people, the wage subsidy scheme must strengthen, not dilute, the incentive for employers who are leading on inclusion. Will the Government revisit the structure and rates of the scheme to ensure a genuinely supports the expansion of disability employment?”
“In this Chamber, we tend to speak almost exclusively about the right of disabled people to access services, yet many other rights make for a full life, not least the right to employment. Ireland continues to have one of the lowest disability employment rates in Europe. The wage subsidy scheme is designed to close the gap, yet what we have heard from Rehab Group, the largest employer of disabled people in the State, is deeply concerning. It has warned the real value of the subsidy has eroded because it has not kept pace with increases in the national minimum wage. It has also raised concerns about the revised band structure. In practical terms, the marginal incentive weakens at higher staffing levels. That risks undermining the very objective of the scheme.”
“We may have moved on from the savage abuse and abject deprivation that defined our industrial and reformatory schools, but too often this has given way to a cold bureaucratic system that meets survivors not with respect and compassion, but with delay, resistance or indifference when they try to access healthcare, basic financial supports and measures that would bring a modicum of comfort to their lives. I implore the Taoiseach to act on the commitments he made to the survivors last November with the greatest urgency.”
“I pay tribute to all industrial and reformatory school survivors and to those who have not lived to hear today's State apology. It is one apology in a series to those who suffered terribly in State institutions. It will ring hollow if it is not followed quickly by the enactment of commitments the Taoiseach made to the hunger strikers last November. I connected with Mary Dunlevy Greene, Mary Donovan, Miriam Moriarty Owens and Maurice Patton O'Connell during their 51-day protest outside Leinster House, in particular with Mary Dunlevy Greene through our shared County Limerick roots. I look forward to meeting Mary in Kilteely, County Limerick, in the coming months. I was deeply struck by the determination and commitment to justice shown by these survivors on behalf of all who endured our hellish industrial and reformatory school system.”
“They must secure a premises, hire staff, manage payroll and deal with administration and financial risk before they can even begin providing medical care. For many, that model simply no longer fits modern medical careers or life. It is a major barrier to recruitment, particularly in rural areas, socio-economically deprived communities and fast-growing towns. Direct recruitment of doctors by the HSE through a salaried GP model would offer a practical way around this. It would allow GPs to focus on clinical work rather than business risk. It would remove the upfront financial barrier to establishing practices and give the State a direct means of replacing GPs when the need to do so is greatest. Access is also deeply unequal. Rural communities struggle to recruit doctors. Deprived communities carry heavier illness burdens and have fewer GPs.”
“Ireland, as Deputy Rice outlined, remains an outlier in Europe by not providing universal GP access free at the point of need. Sláintecare settled the principle of universal access years ago. What is missing now is delivery and a credible timeline from the Government. Capacity pressures are equally stark. The ESRI estimates that we will need up to 1,200 additional GPs by 2040. The Irish College of GPs, ICGP, suggests that the shortfall may already be closer to 2,000. At the same time, hundreds of GPs are approaching retirement. One of the structural problems in this regard is that we continue to expect doctors to become entrepreneurs if they are to become GPs. Young doctors finishing training are effectively being asked to set up and run small businesses.”
“When that door is locked or costs too much to open, so much else backs up behind it, leading to hospital waiting lists, overcrowded emergency departments and untreated illnesses in our communities. The evidence collected by Deputy Rice is overwhelming. Our party survey shows that while almost all respondents are registered with GPs, only one in eight can get a same- or next-day appointment. One in three face a wait of a week or more and nearly half of respondents ended up in emergency departments or out-of-hours services simply because they could not access daytime GP care. This is not a functioning general practice system; it is a system under severe strain. Cost is also a major barrier. Three in five people report delaying or avoiding seeing their GP because of fees, which can range from €50 to €100.”
“I begin by commending Deputy Rice on bringing forward this motion and basing it on in-depth engagement with people affected by the crisis in GP care as well as with policy that can address it. The Government is blue in the face accusing the Social Democrats of having no solutions to the problems we highlight, which are problems it has created through a failure to plan, a failure to invest and a myopic ideological default to privatisation. The Government can rest easy today because this motion contains clear and practical solutions, which, despite the Government's narrative, we consistently tend to provide. At its core, this debate is about something simple yet transformative. Access to a GP is the front door to our health system.”
“If we are serious about inclusive education, we must treat SNAs and school-based supports as core assets, no different from classrooms, transport or teachers.”
“Now we hear talk of deploying clinicians into mainstream schools as if to compensate for future cuts to SNAs. Multidisciplinary supports in schools are desperately needed. Educational psychology, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy services should be embedded in our education system. However, where is the plan, where are the timelines, where is the workforce strategy and where is the clarity on recruitment, funding and delivery? At the moment, this looks less like a reform programme and more like a political holding statement designed to get the Government through the current news cycle. What families and schools need now is forward planning, transparency and a clear commitment that supports will expand in line with need and not be shuffled around when pressure builds and cost containment becomes the narrow priority.”