Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. Will they lay out the proposed new process and address the issue of the time it is taking? I have no doubt that they are trying to do the best for children with special needs but, during the previous session, we heard from the professional bodies and parents that they were not consulted and that the standard operating procedure of the 90-minute assessment is not just a little inadequate, it is woefully inadequate. Some assessments occur over a 40-hour period. Will the witnesses explain what is the proposed new process? Is the 90-minute assessment an additional triage that leads to a more detailed assessment? How does the new process differ from the current process? Will the children receive more than 90-minute assessments? It seems to be the view of the professional bodies that a much more extensive and multidisciplinary assessment is required.

My second question is on the timing. Dr. Morgan laid out the requirement under the Disability Act 2005 that a child must have an assessment within six months of an application being made. We heard this morning that typically the time from a GP working with a parent to refer for assessment to the assessment taking place can be two and a half years. My understanding of what Dr. Morgan stated is that there is a statutory requirement for it to be no more than six months. Will Dr. Morgan indicate whether it is also his understanding that the period, which should be six months, is in many cases taking two and a half years or are we talking about two different periods? Why is it taking so long? What we heard this morning is that it can take two and a half years for a child to move from application to assessment and then a further year to move from assessment to intervention. Therefore, in a situation where parents bring their two and a half year old to a GP and say they think there might be an issue and they would like to have their child looked at, that two and a half year old will be six years of age before he or she gets an intervention. We universally agree that early intervention is critical. Does Dr. Morgan agree that is the current situation? Is it the case that a two and a half year old could be six years of age before he or she gets intervention? If it is Dr. Morgan's understanding, will he outline why that is? Is it that there is not sufficient funding for disability services? Is it that there is sufficient funding but it has not been possible to hire sufficient numbers of professional staff? Is it that the current process is incredibly inefficient and whilst there may be sufficient funding and staff, the process is so inefficient it means that the resources are not being deployed properly? Is it a combination of all three? Is it other things as well?