David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. Mr. Reid will agree that the frustration expressed by members comes on the back of the frustration, exhaustion and pain experienced by many parents of children with disabilities. On Tuesday, Deputy Tully organised a briefing in the AV room for parents of children of disabilities in Cavan and Monaghan. There were four parents at the meeting, all of whom held up photographs of their children, who varied in age from five to 12 or 13. What was consistent across their cases was that most, if not all, had been failed by the system. Some of them had received no services whatsoever while the services for those who did get some were patchy and few and far between. That was just one meeting of ten that I attended in recent weeks. I listened to hundreds of parents express their frustration, exhaustion and pain.

It is difficult for parents of young children with disabilities to look at young adults who have been failed because early intervention did not happen and many of them got no services, leading to developmental problems. I am a parent of two young boys. Any parent would do what they could for his or her child. If you have a child with a disability, you just want to have the services as quickly as possible and to get the best for your child. We have to give expression to the exhaustion, frustration and pain that the parents feel. It is not a reflection on any individual staff member or even anyone in this room. When we last discussed this issue months ago, I stated my belief that everyone in the room should have been ashamed of the failures in this area. This is not to say that there were not successes or that there were not children who got good services, but for those children who we failed and are continuing to fail, we should all feel shame. This is particularly the case when you have to look into the eyes of those children and their parents. The Minister of State has engaged with many of the parents.

They have got to the point where they do not want to attend meetings any more because they are hearing the same stories. They want solutions and to know when things will change. I accept that there are no easy solutions either, but I will put some questions in that regard. That is how people feel.

Turning to Mr. O'Regan, part of the problem is that we submit parliamentary questions to get information and basic data and he responds to those on behalf of the HSE. We do not get answers. Here are some examples. I asked about the number of open cases involving CDNTs where individual family service plans are in place. The information could not provided. I asked about the number of persons who have received assessments of need but not service statements. The information could not be provided. I asked about the number of children who have had assessments of need and where a need has been identified but services have not been provided. The information could not be given. I asked about the number of children referred for services; these are not numbers having assessments because we know they do not all need assessments but, rather, those who have been referred for services and got none. The information could not be provided.

We know there are issues with the database that underpins the recording of this, and we went through this before. Again, I do not know if the issue has been resolved, although the witnesses have spoken about a new integrated system that needs to be put in place. The section 13 annual reports were to be published going back a long number of years. I still do not know if those reports have been completed or published. If the executive does not have basic data and I cannot understand the need, how can anybody understand it? That is the real frustration for me.

I have engaged with the Minister on this matter. Children have a right to assessments, which should be as comprehensive as possible. I also accept that the critical area is services and that children need access to services. That is where we must put all or most of our energy. Staffing is the key issue. The census was published in April but it is out of date because the Minister of State has indicated that the figure for vacancies is not 524.5 it is 714. We cannot recruit the staff and there are reasons for that, which must be addressed. If we do not do it, we are at nothing. We will face those parents time and again, month after month and year after year without any resolution.

I have a number of direct questions for Mr. Reid. What is the engagement between the HSE and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science with respect to training places? We must clearly recruit and train more professionals, and that process must be ratcheted up quite dramatically over the next number of years.

We have an access to care fund for acute services. I say this as somebody who, from an ideological perspective, would prefer the use of taxpayers' money for the funding of the health services went to public services. Looking at these children and parents in the eye, however, if there is the possibility of purchasing services from the private sector for them, we should do that in the short term. It is not a long-term solution but it could be used in the short term. We should look at a similar fund for community services, particularly in the context of children with disabilities, with a similar fund in place for mental health services. Is that something the HSE would consider and put in place?

I do not have the monopoly on answers, and nobody has all the wisdom and solutions. We all want to get there. I will do absolutely everything I can and work with the Minister and the people across from me to resolve this matter. The failures people raised earlier are real, however, and must be acknowledged. They are part of a lived reality. I ask, in that spirit, that everything humanly possible be done to resolve the matter and that we put a plan in place that people can see will work over time. Nobody is expecting a magic-wand solution - it is not there - but we should be able to fix the problem over time. We must fix the data problems as well because if we cannot have basic data, we cannot plan or fully understand the extent of the problem.