An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2024-05-22
============================================================

Maria Byrne (FG), Agricultural Panel

I welcome the €6.8 million announced by the Government to tackle assessment of need places. I know from dealing with families in Limerick that the number of people on the waiting list locally and nationally is very large. The €6.8 million is due to cover 2,500 children nationally and it is most welcome that private assessments will be paid for by the State. I understand families will not have to pay out in advance and that the State will pay the private provider directly. This is really welcome because I work with a school to do with disabilities and it has a huge waiting list for assessments of need. It will be a big relief to families because the waiting time was putting them under a lot of stress. I commend the Government. This was led by the new Department that was set up by the Taoiseach, with all Departments working together to look at areas where there is a need and where there have been long waiting lists.
I support Senator Gallagher's call for a debate on reducing the VAT rate to 9%. I have called for it for a long time. It is important we have that debate and put a plan in place in the lead-up to the next budget.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2024-05-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-05-22