Ms Cara Darmody:

My dream in life would be that the Government would stop breaking the law, that it would assess children within the legal six-month limit and that the children would not be rotting on a waiting list for five to six years. That is the big aim here - that the Government would stop allowing the HSE to break the law and systematically smash the law and that these children would not rot on waiting lists any more. There would not be any permanent damage caused to children, their email would be responded to within the three months of application and the child would be assessed within six months.

I have spent the past two or three years campaigning for disabled people who cannot fight back for themselves, and it has been some journey. I would absolutely go back and do it again because the best thing I have ever done was getting involved in this. Since around the age of six I have always got a little bit of joy and happiness from helping other people and being able to help other people, especially when I got the €10 million worth of Government funding last October and nearly 3,500 children got an assessment of need and were not rotting on a waiting list any more because of that. While it is only a small drop in the ocean, I am so happy to be able to make a difference and to be able to try to help as many people as I can. The dream is that the Government would stop breaking the law, would comply within the six months and that kids who cannot fight back for themselves would no longer have to be rotting on a waiting list and that they would be treated not as second class citizens but like any other citizen in Ireland.

My two brothers and I live in the same country called Ireland but we live in two very different places at the same time. I have loads of friends and play loads of sports and everything is laid out for me. I am just a normal 14-year-old with a great life ahead but my two brothers, Neil and John, get treated like second-class citizens and are rotting away. It is so hard to watch and it is all just because they have a disability, and that needs to end. Disabled people can no longer be treated differently. They need to be assessed and should not be left to rot on the waiting list. It is so wrong and it gives me determination every single day to come up here and fight not just for my brothers but for the thousands of children and families who are too scared to speak up to the Government or who cannot speak up.