Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am very glad that this item was accepted and am pleased that the Minister of State is here to respond.

I wish to refer to services provided by Enable Ireland for children up to age six and by the HSE's child development team for children aged from six to eight in Cavan-Monaghan. My comments are informed by my constituency work and by ongoing contact with parents of children with a disability, particularly autism. I know from replies from the HSE to representations I have made on behalf of constituents that there has been an increasing volume of referrals to the Cavan-Monaghan child development team. The HSE has publicly acknowledged that referral rates for children in Cavan-Monaghan have increased significantly in recent years and, consequently, waiting time have also increased.

The HSE has identified additional staffing as a priority in Cavan-Monaghan and I sincerely hope that the Minister of State will be able to provide the necessary resources to ensure that an adequate complement of professional staff is based in Cavan-Monaghan. Families need to be able to access the required professional services for children at the appropriate time. Delayed assessment, intervention and service provision for children at the formative time in their lives is not acceptable.

I know from speaking to parents that Enable Ireland provides an excellent service in Cavan-Monaghan. However, parents have made representations to me with regard to the delays they are experiencing in obtaining ASD diagnostic assessments. I understand from parents who have had interactions with Enable Ireland that it is providing services to approximately 430 children aged up to six in Cavan-Monaghan. This includes children with a named disability or a delay in their development, as well as children presenting with features of ASD. Every child that is accepted onto the Enable Ireland programme goes through an initial assessment period to identify his or her needs before an individual intervention plan is put in place. Where there are concerns about a child presenting with possible features of ASD, Enable Ireland discusses the matter with the family and places that child on the waiting list for an ASD diagnostic assessment.

Last weekend, a parent told me that she understood that more than 70 children are awaiting the ASD diagnostic process in Cavan-Monaghan. As we know, the diagnostic process requires assessment by a psychologist, a speech and language therapist and an occupational therapist because the gathering and integration of information from multiple sources strengthens the validity of a diagnosis and age-differential diagnosis in young children. This parent was extremely well informed thorough interaction with other parents of children with autism and through different support groups. She told me that Enable Ireland would only have one whole-time equivalent psychologist post to meet the needs of 420 children across Cavan-Monaghan. If that figure is accurate, the Minister of State will see a huge deficit in that professional service. I have to accept the word of that well-informed parent who gave me that information. With such a limited resource, it is extremely difficult to work through that ASD waiting list in a timely manner while also trying to provide some psychology supports to the other children in the service and to provide support to preschools and schools attended by the children. There are huge demands on that professional service provided so well by Enable Ireland.

Service providers also have to deal with the assessment-of-need process. The relevant legislation requires that referrals received through the assessment-of-need process must be responded to and children must be assessed within a specific timeframe. When the local service providers try to respond to the needs of the children who are presented by parents or by schools and also through the assessment-of-need process, the service providers then have a huge difficulty. Do they only respond to the referrals that come by way of assessments of need, meaning that the other children's assessments will be delayed? There is a conflict and a difficulty for the service provider in the context of meeting the needs of the children while adhering to the timeframes set down in legislation.

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