Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We continue to receive calls from the families of children with disabilities or children awaiting diagnoses for obvious conditions, who are waiting for long periods during which they seem to be isolated and forgotten. This is causing great stress to parents and the children themselves.

Last night, I met a person with neurological problems. There seems to be a particular problem in this regard. The person is in difficulty, in stress and in pain. The person has a telephone appointment for something like a year’s time but no chance of an appointment for two years. That is not good enough. We have capacity in the private sector, we have access to it and we have budgetary provision made for it. Why do we not utilise that to a greater extent in order to get level before it is too late? We have had the debate on scoliosis many times before. The general public do not understand this. They think there is some sort of conspiracy blocking the system to make sure that nothing ever happens. Because they are in the eye of the storm, they have a more acute appreciation of it than anybody else. The patient always counts. However, there are those patients who cannot speak for themselves and who are at the beck and call of those around them. We need to ensure that everything possible is done for them in the shortest possible time.