Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We need to pay them another visit when we are finished here, maybe to get money for disabilities.

I thank the Minister of State for coming in. I will not detain her. My questioning will not be too long. I believe that in trying to do everything right, we still are struggling to get the basics right. I can see it on a day--to-day basis - I am sure the Minister of State can and every other politician in the room can see it - where parents are coming to us where they cannot get assessments for their children. I had a case last week where somebody was brought in, they were asked the child's name, date of birth, PPS number and whatever else. They were effectively registered and that was it. They asked when would they have an assessment and they were told it would be at least two years. The child is two-and-a-half years old and is non-verbal. The problem is that child cannot progress any place until an assessment is done and must wait two more years. On the other side of the coin, I had a woman who rang me yesterday. She got her assessment. The boy is aged ten and for his next step, he has to go to CAMHS. They have been struggling for five years, if not longer, to try to get the assessment done. The timeframe to get the assessments does not seem to be improving and they are coming to politicians to try and speed up the process.

I then had the experience of meeting a young speech and language therapist who had been working in the HSE for three and a half years and was not getting a permanent contract and is now in New Zealand. We talk about getting people back into the country but when we have them, there is something missing when we do not take care of those we have and give them permanent contracts. If they cannot get a permanent contract, they cannot apply for a mortgage. They cannot do anything like that. We are saying we cannot find people, yet we are losing them out the door.

It is frustrating and I know well the Minister of State knows what is going on. It is a question of how do we start putting this right. We are putting money now into letting parents get private assessments done but when I listen to what she is saying, it is only the start of it and it all has to come back into the HSE. I thought disabilities had been taken out of the HSE and gone into another Department, which took maybe two years to get done, but it seems we are still being dragged into something or back the way again all the time.

It is a big challenge but, at the end of the day, the young children who need the interventions earlier are not getting them. The young girl who has been protesting for the past two weeks outside the gate was looking for us as legislators and the Government to do what is a legal right for these children, which is to provide an assessment within six months. Is that not it? Commitments are being given on that but what I would love to know is what will change so that these commitments can be met. People keep telling me it is a question not of money but of trying to get people, but I believe there is a game going on within the HSE and Departments or wherever at the expense of providing the services when I see a young person saying she was being refused a permanent contract after three and a half years and she was happy enough to go travelling. I am probably talking to the converted.