Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Thomas Byrne on introducing this motion on behalf of Fianna Fáil. I would like to focus on the entry point for children, for which the Department of Health and the HSE, rather than the Department of Education and Skills, is strictly responsible. The lack of real integration between the health and education authorities in dealing with special needs is part of the problem we are discussing. I would also like to focus on the assessment of need. Under the Disability Act 2005, an assessment of need must commence within three months of an application and must be completed within six months of that application being made. Those timelines are being consistently and flagrantly disregarded. The fact of the matter is that they are not being met by the HSE and the Department of Health.

There is nothing like an individual case to bring absolute clarity to an issue like this. I would like to highlight such a case. I could place the details of a different case on every single seat on the Government side of the Chamber. A young girl in my constituency was put on the waiting list for an assessment of need in September 2016. In November of that year, her parents became aware that the provisions of the Disability Act 2005 would not be met and the timeline would be breached. They were advised to make a complaint to the HSE on the understanding that if the complaint was upheld, the child's application could be prioritised on the waiting list. After they made the complaint in November 2016, they were advised that their daughter was No. 1,026 on the complaints waiting list. I am not talking about the waiting list to have the actual assessment done, but about the waiting list to have the complaint regarding the assessment dealt with. The parents were told at that time that the HSE complaints office was dealing with complaint No. 515 and that there was a five-month delay in responding to complaints.

On 1 March 2017, they requested an update on the complaint and were told the delay had increased from six to seven months from the date the complaint was received and the HSE was addressing complaint No. 569. The young child was No. 1,026. She is not a number but rather a young child waiting to be assessed in order to gain access to services so she can access an appropriate place in the education system. There is one person in the HSE responsible for administering these complaints and it is not uncommon in our part of the country for children to wait for a year for an assessment of need having gone through the full complaints process. We are told this is being addressed and the HSE is doing this, that and the other to deal with the matter but I am not seeing the evidence on the ground. In my ten years as a Deputy, I have never had so many inquiries and complaints from families about delays in getting an assessment of need.

At the end, if these people get an assessment, it is not as if there is a great array of services waiting for them, as, sadly, there is not. If they get diagnosed through a service provider, no one-to-one occupational therapy, speech and language therapy or physiotherapy is provided that I can see. At least it can allow these children to join a waiting list for an appropriate place in a special school or autism spectrum disorder, ASD, unit that is part of a mainstream school. That is what the public diagnosis, as such, can do, but they are being denied that opportunity.

We have correctly seen outcry from the public and elected politicians in the past number of days arising form the revelations in Tuam. No doubt there will be further revelations elsewhere in the country about mother and baby homes. Let us consider what we are doing today, in 2017, when all the evidence tells us early intervention makes such a difference, leading to appropriate services being provided for children. It is a life-changing experience and if those children get an appropriate place in school and access to the correct services, it changes their life for the better. We are failing the children of Ireland with special needs and it is not good enough. As a country we should be ashamed of ourselves. This is our Tuam scandal of 2017 but we are in a position to do something about it. Let us act on it now.

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