Ms Aileen O'Donovan:

I thank Deputy Cairns. Going back to our group, we are a small group of 17 families and our children are aged between three and 16. A lot of our families have the same issues. They do not know who their team is. Those who shout the loudest get the services. When people get the services they are of great quality but they only get blocks of services. By the time a person gets back to thinking about when they last saw those people they have forgotten who they are. There is no follow-up. Once a person is in the school system that takes over. It is very hard because they are so busy with learning. There is no clear provision made. A lot of our kids have not seen anyone in the three years since lockdown. Lots of people have not seen anyone at all for maybe a full year. They have failed to provide a service for the children. It is not as if the team is not there. The team is there but is broken into slots of days and when someone rings for an appointment they might get one in three weeks' time, and then they get a block. That might suit some but our children need services all of the time.

There is a report recommendation on weekly speech therapy for everyone with Down's syndrome. Our children are all unique but they really progress with services on a regular basis. Unfortunately in the past few years a lot of our children have regressed and we will never again get that ability to progress back. We are fortunate to have private speech therapy through Down Syndrome Cork in Skibbereen so at least the kids do not have to travel. Can one imagine sitting in the car for an hour and a half, maybe two hours, getting there for a 40-minute slot? Number one, it is exhausting for the parents plus if they have other children they are missing out. It is not just the child who is missing out. Cork is large and we are that bit further west. We are different and we do not have access to extracurricular things that maybe people in cities have. We are slightly on the back foot but we continue to try to progress.