Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raised this issue with the Taoiseach last year during Leaders' Questions. It was thrown aside. I was told that what I had said was not the case and that it was not happening in St. John of God. I was told the children were getting the services. I followed up with parliamentary questions.

Emma O'Kelly did a detailed report into this. It has been shown that St. John of God, Islandbridge is the poor relation when it comes to services. The organisation does not have vocational structures. It has only one psychologist, who is shared with St. John of God Menni Services. It has an emergency social work clinic for two hours each week, while two speech and language therapists are shared with 500 people in the Dublin South-West area. This has to change.

On Tuesday, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, the Minister for Education and Skills and the Minister for Health launched a pilot scheme funded by the National Council for Special Education to bring services into mainstream schools. This school in Islandbridge is specifically supposed to provide these services for children but they are not getting the service. This is mad. The main message the Ministers tried to get across was that early intervention makes all the difference, yet these children have had no services for four years. Parents are going to private speech and therapy services for their children at a cost of €2,500 per year.

A scandal arose in St. John of God Services only two years ago when pensions and so on were being paid to the people on the board according to their rights. What about the rights of the children? These children need services now. That launch was in the HSE community healthcare organisation 7 area, which includes Islandbridge. The parents are demanding that the National Council for Special Education or the HSE intervene and provide the services that St John of God, Islandbridge is not providing.

See this speech in context