Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their contributions. I apologise for being late and missing the opening statements but I was in the Dáil Chamber putting questions to the Taoiseach around early intervention in regard to assessments of need and the struggle parents face in getting assessments for their children. Mr. Chance spoke about old services being dressed up as new services.

What is happening is that they are being watered down in the process, going from assessment of needs to a standard operation procedure. The Ombudsman for Children who appeared before this committee stated that it was an old-fashioned three-card trick where kids were being moved from one list to another without receiving the service they need and they are not reaching their developmental milestones as a result of this. There are huge HSE waiting lists for speech and language, assessment of needs, occupational therapy, child psychology. During Covid-19, I know there was an emergency, but we had a bizarre situation where clinicians who were providing these services for which there are huge waiting lists were moved from providing these services to Covid-19 measures. Yet thousands and thousands of people, and I was one of them, answered Ireland's call and offered our services free of charge to fill that gap but our offer was not taken up.

I have a couple of questions. The first is in regard to the post-code lottery whereby, depending on the location a person lives in, the service might be provided more quickly than in another location. The second matter, on which I questioned the Taoiseach today, relates to the response I got to a parliamentary question, where the State now provides a public service to complete assessments of needs, which I was not aware of. Have the witnesses heard of this happening? What are the witnesses' experiences on the ground in regard to the post-code lottery and the waiting times? How can we ensure children get the care they need, when and where they need it, in connection with assessment of needs, occupational therapy, speech and language, child psychology and all the auxiliary services?