Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As always, I thank the Minister of State for her engagement and briefing. I thank her office for being so engaged and accessible. I really appreciate that.

My home constituency is Dublin South-Central, taking in a little of Dublin 6 and Dublin 6W. In that there seems to be exceptionally long waiting lists and it has been considered quite the black hole. One of my emails to the witnesses argued there is a postcode lottery and this area is particularly badly hit with very long waiting lists. I welcome comments on where we are at in that regard. I received a briefing from the Minister of State, Deputy Frank Feighan, indicating who was deployed where or redeployed into services but figures were missing for the community healthcare organisation, CHO, 7.

Within the area there are a number of families with children with Down's syndrome. There is a commonality of experience. One of the families has been advised that a new ophthalmology service is beginning in April 2021 and I would appreciate an update on that. The family has been placed on a waiting list so what length of time are we looking at for an assessment?

One of the difficulties of being on such a long waiting list is that a child may be in second class is ready to go to a school with an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, unit but if that child has not been assessed, he or she does not qualify to get into the unit despite obviously requiring such support. The lack of assessment is having a detrimental effect on educational needs of children. In such a case, a paediatrician may have written to the HSE to say that an assessment is urgently required but has not occurred. Parents in such cases are getting quotes of €1,850 to get a private assessment but do not know if such an assessment would be accepted.

Children with Down's syndrome are much more likely to suffer from arthritis, at one in 50 children as compared with one in 1,000 for the rest of the population. Such children need an MRI done under a general anaesthetic. If a child has pain now, the earliest appointment for the diagnostic is apparently January 2022. That type of delay is quite common and a recent article in The Irish Timesindicated a delay in waiting times of between four and seven years, which sounds astounding.

I appreciate that there are many questions but I would not mind an update on where things stand with section 39 organisations. I have plagued the witnesses about that before. I thank the Minister of State, as always.