Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Government has indicated that it intends to review the Disability Act 2005 and that it sees the current assessment of need process as hampering its ability to resource therapies for children with additional needs. That intention is creating a lot of concern among families, advocacy groups and clinicians. There are children who would benefit from low-intensity or short-term intervention for whom it is not necessarily in their interests to receive a diagnosis and who would benefit from a therapeutic assessment followed by timely intervention by primary care services. Such services have been chronically under-resourced and most have long waiting lists. Some of these children are getting stuck in the assessment of need pathway for a prolonged period and are then left waiting for therapies that may never materialise. Notwithstanding that, there is a great deal of concern that the one right children have under the disability legislation will be watered down. The right to an assessment of need is something of a dead end when it is not accompanied by a right to intervention. Does the commission have a view on the legal right to an assessment of need and the possible legal right to intervention? Is this something the commission is considering in light of the narratives relating to this matter?