Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for coming in. In the opening statement, we heard the Department taking responsibility for ensuring good health and well-being for all individuals across their life course, including people with disabilities, very seriously and being acutely conscious of the obligations under the UNCRPD. We are in crisis. While out canvassing, I meet parents and we speak about the CDNT in Carlow. It has no psychologists and no staff to answer phones. We have children waiting for assessment. If they go privately, people often have to borrow money to get their child assessed and there is a six-month waiting list. If they are on the public health list, the waiting time is two years. That is unacceptable. It is not good enough and the number of families in difficulty who come to my office is a disgrace. These families are being broken and they are tormented. We speak about early intervention but it is not happening. I have spoken to the Minister of State, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, about this on several occasions. I know that it is about recruitment and staff and that there was not an embargo in the disability area, but it does not matter.

The situation in Carlow CDNT is so unfair on the few staff who are there because they are burnt out. There is no one to even answer the phones. Parents are not even getting a call back. We are at a critical stage now. We were to have a meeting about CHO 5 with the regional executive officer, Martina Queally, on Friday and she cancelled. I was very disappointed about that, although I am very disappointed in general, because the services a really bad.

I want to speak about CAMHS. I am holding a big public meeting next week, with really good speakers coming to it, about mental health and the concerns such as the time that people are waiting looking for a bed. One is trying to get them help. Families are coming to me.

In the review of the CAMHS by Dr. Finnerty, there was a recommendation for regulation of CAMHS. The call for legislation was repeated in the Mental Health Commission annual report on the regulation of CAMHS.

I am concerned about the services at present. I am concerned about the children who need them but I am also concerned about the parents. Last week, AsIAm was here. They spoke about the Same Chance Report. It stated that 58% of people surveyed felt that the healthcare system in Ireland was not inclusive in the case of both disability service and healthcare services in general. Is that a huge concern or not?

I am tormented in the sense that I am on to the HSE, I am on to the Ministers, I have families coming in tormented and I just cannot get results. It keeps going back to, "We need more staff." I understand that we have issues with staff but I cannot go back and tell that family we cannot recruit. I cannot go back and tell that child that he or she will not be assessed for two years. I do not understand, even here today, what is happening, in the sense that we have obligations. We have children who need assessments and we are not providing them. I have people willing to borrow money from the credit union and the banks to get their child assessed and then some of them are accepted and some of them are not. I believe we have hit rock bottom. We cannot go any lower. As for the CDNT in Carlow, it is not fair and as I said, I am not here to blame any staff member. I telephone them all the time. I telephone the HSE. What will the Department do? What can be done for the families that need support?

I want to speak also about medical cards, another area about which I have huge concerns. We spoke about medical cards being means tested. First of all, when one is on a medical card, one could be assessed in the first year. One can be lucky if it is three years, because it goes between one year and three years. If one has a medical card, one has to be assessed on that.

On invalidity, I have people who would love to go for a little part-time work for a few hours, as they are entitled to. The fear of losing their disability payment is not encouraging them. We are now in a system where we have people who are genuinely on medical cards and on disability payments who could get those few hours of work but the system is failing them. From talking to families all the time, I fear the concerns in that regard. I deal with it daily.

We speak about access to buildings. I note that is a concern for the Department in hospitals, doctors' surgeries, etc., but we are not building enough houses for people with disabilities, such as people in wheelchairs. A number of people have approached me who are in a wheelchair or who have a disability and who need a bungalow. We need to have more regulation on bungalows whereby people who need them can get them. There is nothing there and it is getting worse. We have buildings. They are good buildings but they are not wheelchair accessible.

Overall we need to look at a system that, I believe, is failing. We need to do something drastic on this now.

I was out canvassing the other night and had a lady close the door on me. She said that I did nothing to help her. It is not that I did not, because she knows I did. She came back and said that she knew I did and she was sorry, but she is tormented because her child cannot be assessed for two to three years. What could I say to her? I could not say anything to her.

I do not know whether the Department realises how bad it is. I am telling the Department it is the biggest issue coming up. It is the biggest issue facing families and children that I have ever come across.

I am telling the Department the truth. I am telling the Department as I see it daily. I am telling the Department I believe we are in crisis.