Ms Angela O'Neill:

Deputy O'Reilly referred specifically to the 47-hour timeframe and Deputy Donnelly referred to more than 40 hours. These times usually refer to an diagnostic ASD assessment, which can take that long. As a disability team we have had concerns about current times. When a child goes onto a waiting list for a diagnostic ASD assessment under the assessment of need, in areas such as Cork the children can wait for three years for this assessment. While on the waiting list a two and half year old child, such as the child Deputy Donnelly mentioned, is getting no services. I have reviewed files and when they have the 40-hour assessment, some of the children are deemed to not have ASD. The child, however, is 5 or 6 years old by this time and does not have ASD. He or she could have been accessing community speech and language therapy or community occupational therapy in the meantime but he was on the wrong waiting list for that time.

With the new SOP we are trying to ensure that when children are applying for an AON under the Disability Act we have the right children coming through the Disability Act gate. We would look at the access policy and the eligibility in that way and within the statutory timeframe. If we are to offer a PTA, it is only a viable option if we are to do so within a reasonable timeframe. It is not reasonable to offer a PTA after one, two or three years. If such an assessment can be offered within that timeframe and if it is determined that the child has needs, then mum and dad can be offered strategies to help the child in the meantime. The child may need a diagnostic ASD or a cognitive assessment, or speech and language therapy intervention, and is then placed on the waiting list for that assessment. At that point we at least know the child is on the right waiting list and that we have given the family some strategies to work with in the meantime. We do not say the child does not take the diagnostic ASD, which may take the 40 hours - even though we also need to do some separate work in fine-tuning the ASD assessment to make it more streamlined. We do not say that the child cannot have that full assessment, but somebody needs to be seeing the child much faster and putting him or her on the right path.