Ms Lorraine Dempsey:

To respond to the point on therapists being directed towards testing and contact tracing, as far as I am aware this is no longer the case but what we are left with are services that are being delivered predominantly remotely. Instead of being diverted towards testing and contact tracing, therapists are being directed towards assessments of needs and reducing the State's breaching of the statutory obligations to complete assessments within the statutory timeframe. This means any children on intervention waiting lists, or in intervention but not receiving intervention, have to wait because of the State's obligation to meet the assessment of needs deadline. I understand the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has invested more than €7 million towards reducing the assessment of needs waiting lists but while children are in a constant loop of assessments they do not get what they really need, which are the actual interventions to make a difference.

Inclusion Ireland came before several Oireachtas committees to speak about the impact of Covid on children in schools through school closures and remote education not working. What we would like to see is a massively expanded summer programme, even larger than last year. This means incentives for more schools to engage in school-based summer programmes because for the most part this is what children really need. What we do not need are parents having to struggle to find tutors or special needs assistants themselves with no centralised database operated by the Department of Education. I understand the spokesperson for education in Deputy Tully's party has raised this issue with the Department. Inclusion Ireland, Down Syndrome Ireland, AsIAm and Family Carers Ireland requested, and received approval from the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and the Minister, Deputy Foley, that the Department should set up a regular consultation forum for our organisations in order that we can input collaboratively to the development of measures such as the summer programme. Instead of something that will not be effective being announced, we can be part of designing something that will be effective from the outset. We have written to the Department to establish this group.

With regard to services, Covid has only exacerbated waiting lists. It did not create the waiting lists. What we need is investment. When we do have investment the HSE has a problem with recruitment. I understand it is looking at how we get over this. I cannot see any difference being made in the coming years if we do not produce the required therapists in third level and entice them into children's disability services. Otherwise, we will always have unfilled yet funded posts. This is the direction we are going in. We are at risk of not being able to deliver for children's needs because we simply cannot fill posts when funds are available.

Every other day we hear parents on the radio, in the media and on "Prime Time" expressing how distressing it is to see their children not developing and not meeting their potential because the parents are not been given the right resources to support them. This also goes for schools. We know that allocation of special educational teachers and special needs assistants are based on whole school profiles. Re-examining these school profiles has been stalled. We understand the reasons for this, given the pandemic, but schools will be trying to provide an additional teaching allocation for children with special educational needs based on the same numbers they had four years ago. This is particularly the case for developing schools, such as those with Educate Together as a patron body. We need to see an increase in supports for special education teacher allocations and special needs assistant allocations to wrap around schools, as well as additional therapy supports to ensure children are delivered therapy in the right place at the right time for what they need. If it is school-based so be it. If it is home-based or community based, depending on what the goals are for that child, we need to develop the systems and resources to deliver them effectively for children.