Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also thank the Minister of State and her officials. I missed her opening statement for which I apologise. I have a few questions on matters I am looking to get an update on. There is an issue in respect of filling vacancies in CHO 3. When I asked about that in May or June, 2.1 posts were not filled at that stage. Have those posts been filled or are there still vacancies?

As the Minister of State knows, the assessment of needs issue is one issue about which many parents contact me. In general terms, there is a lot of confusion over the first initial contact and the actual assessment of needs. In responses to parliamentary questions, it sometimes looks a little confusing even to me. On 5 June, there were more than 500 young people waiting in CHO 3, which equated to approximately 64 children in County Clare, with the longest waiting period on the list at that point being 32 months. Is there any movement in that regard? From listening to the Minister of State's responses, I recall she was able to significantly reduce the assessment of needs list four years ago. She also mentioned that CDNTs are the teams where people do not seem to want to work. She has already gone over this with Deputy Canney, but it has been mentioned to me that it is very hard to compete with the HSE when it comes to staff. That has been relayed to me time and time again. What is the situation in respect of the positions not filled on the CDNT for CHO 3?

I will also raise reimbursement for assessment of needs. A number of parents with children who have been waiting more than a year for their assessment of needs have reached out to me. It can be imagined what pressure, stress and everything else that is putting on their household because they do not know when the assessment will come. Many parents are asking whether they will be reimbursed. There is this messaging or idea out there that if parents go down the route of a private assessment, they may be reimbursed in future. However, I have received responses to parliamentary questions that state very clearly there is no option or opportunity for the HSE to reimburse parents. I said I would get clarification for those parents, in particular, today. I will raise one case because the parent asked me to do so. This parent has twin boys, one of whom has been with the service for more than a year, while the other has been added recently. Their mother is looking at a loan of €2,400 to pay for their assessments. These children are due to start preschool in September. Will there be any issues for those children in accessing their preschool place if they have not had their assessment and diagnosis by then? This is the question that has been put to me.

In respect of the complaints around assessment of needs, I know of one parent who has been chasing up her assessment. She has had to get a loan of €1,600 for it. Through the process and pathway she has gone down, she has been told that it will be €1,600 for an autism assessment that will be done on a particular day. However, if the child does not fit the criteria for autism, that parent is looking at a further assessment and maybe a specific ADHD assessment. Is this something the Minister of State is hearing of? That is another €1,600 parents then have to fork out. In many cases, they are getting loans for that on which there is interest. It leads to an awful lot of difficulties, especially for lower-income families. As I said, this parent was trying to chase it up. The phone was not being answered. She submitted her complaint formally. When she finally did get someone on the phone, that person confirmed to her in May of this year that only complaints from June 2023 were being addressed. She was quite surprised because, as most parents do, she was reading up on assessments and looking at the news. While they understand that lists are very long when it comes to assessment of needs waiting times, they were not expecting any issues in respect of logging complaints and those complaints being addressed. Are there personnel issues in that regard or is it a case of so many being in a desperate situation and they are complaining?