Ms Karin Jonsson:

Many parents come to us because they have decided that they need to go private because of a waiting list. Those waiting lists include an assessment of needs, speech and language therapy or play therapy. Sometimes children have experienced highly traumatic situations and are not coping, but there is nothing for them that is free or low cost. Many organisations provide different kinds of support in some of these areas, and we are one of them, but our waiting lists are long.

Parents take a decision to pay privately for as long as they can and then come to us. They are almost sorry for what they have done on one level. They cannot afford food, but their children need an assessment or support almost as much as they need food in order to be able to manage, develop, get something out of going to school and not be traumatised or depressed. There are several examples of that. People wait for a very long time. There are examples of adults doing that, but we are focusing especially on children.

Waiting lists are long everywhere. To some extent, in our area they are, at times, especially long. I know the Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on people working in different service providers by the HSE and contact tracing, etc., is also very important. However, when one sees these children and parents one wishes that there could be more resources put into shortening waiting lists.

Children are sometimes put on a waiting list, but they are there for so long that they are too young for a service and are instead moved to the bottom of the next waiting lists, and nothing seems to happen. That perpetuates a situation of genuine struggle in these families. The children do not start off with the same opportunities or on the same platform as others. Even though food and paying bills is very important, sometimes parents take this decision for the well-being of their child.