I move amendment No. 9: In page 9, to delete lines 19 to 21 and substitute the following: “(5) The Chief Operating Officer may appoint suitably qualified staff as he or she may determine to the staff of the Office of the Chief Deciding Officer to assist in the performance of his or her duties.”. The office of the chief deciding officer must be independent and, as such, the recruitment of staff to the office must be independent and that is the aim of the amendment.

My whole difficulty with this relates to "assigned staff". Where are those staff going to come from? It is somewhat similar to what Deputy Sherlock spoke about earlier. I mean no disrespect to them but there may be existing staff in another role in the Civil Service who will be moved over to this. If we want them to be fully independent the chief deciding officer should be able to advertise for staff and decide what type of staff is needed for that role. It should be solely with that office. It should not be assign…

Can I come back in?

The chief deciding officer should be able to appoint his or her staff independently. The idea is that the chances of having to appeal a decision with a genuinely independent staff in place will be reduced. I am not talking about setting up a whole new State agency, which is different from what we proposed on the birth information legislation. If I was appointed in the morning as an independent person and I said I needed to appoint five, six, seven or eight staff, there is no way that would take 18 months. I cannot …

I will press the amendment.

I move amendment No. 11: In page 9, line 35, after “campaign,” to insert “in Ireland and abroad,”. We had a discussion on this in committee. If I am reading it correctly, the Minister's amendment No. 12 deals with the issue. If that is the case, I will be happy to withdraw amendment No. 11. I ask for clarity on that.

This relates to the earlier discussion on the dissolution, which we do not support. I am just following on with that train of thought.

This again gives us the opportunity to speak about the six-month timeframe. One of the things that we did in the pre-legislative process in the committee was to bring in specialists in childhood trauma. It is probably one of the best sessions that we have ever had because it was so insightful and very interesting in terms of how it works. None of us can know or say what damage is done if one spends two years, two weeks or two days in an institution. One cannot say that someone who spent more time there is more dese…

Amendments Nos. 28 and 50 are very similar. They seek to have "as soon as practicable" deleted and substituted with "within 28 days". I say this on foot of the situation with the Birth Information and Tracing Act, where people are waiting far past the recommended time. Unfortunately, just today I spoke to somebody who is still having difficulty getting their information, particularly their medical information, so when I read "as soon as practicable", I think, how long is a piece of string? That is just not acceptab…

I thank Deputy Ward for bringing forward this motion and all his work and advocacy on mental health. The motion clearly calls for straightforward reform in order that resourcing is matched with staffing and services are available when and where they are needed. That is one of the key issues because my experience with CAMHS is that people have difficulty accessing the service. First, the referral can be quite daunting. They are also fobbed off in many cases. In community healthcare organisation, CHO, 5, which is the…

I was not expecting to mention this, but as Deputy Durkan brought up sugar beet I want to agree with his comments. The closure of the sugar factory in Carlow was a huge and devastating loss not just to the Carlow but to the wider constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny and the south-east. We have not recovered from that loss. I want to support his comments on that. Various groups are trying to revamp the industry and it is to be hoped we can count on Government support for that. The constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny has a mi…

I am assuming that this is Deputy Carroll MacNeill’s first contribution as a Minister of State.

I wish her the very best of luck with the role and I offer her my congratulations.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, for attending. I am glad this matter was selected because, to a certain extent, I am not surprised when we get representations in regard to waiting times for assessments, access to therapies or even National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, appointments. When I first saw the letter from the school, “NEPS” jumped out at me on the page and I thought it was going to be about the number of assessments the school had. I know many schools find it very difficult, when…

I thank the Minister of State. I will talk to the school about contacting NEPS directly and about what I would describe as interim measures in terms of the regional team. I imagine the regional team could be overstretched as well, but I do not know that. It is, however, a common occurrence. In regard to what the Minister of State says about no school being without a NEPS psychologist, obviously some schools do not have one if the person concerned got a promotion. Perhaps it is not the only school affected. I imagin…

I am aware that the Minister had more to say.

Everybody should have a copy of the script. I call Deputy Ó Broin now from Sinn Féin.

Deputy, you are over time.

Deputy, you cannot name people outside of the House.

I thank the Deputy. I remind all Members that they should not name any individual outside of the House. We will move on to the Sinn Féin slot. I call Deputy Ó Snodaigh.