Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I take his word that the Government has recognised that the waiting time for services for children with disabilities needs to be improved significantly. The Minister of State mentioned that A Programme for a Partnership Government committed to improving these services. This Government is now into its fourth year and one would have assumed that this would have been much further on. I hope the commitments from the Minister of State today on this issue will be realised in the short term.

The Minster of State also mentioned the standardised process to be used nationally for conducting the assessments. Is that standardised process the standard operating procedure, SOP, or is it more detailed than that? Children with extreme special needs, be that autism or severe intellectual disabilities, will need a standardised assessment, compared to that of 90 minutes, of up to 40 hours. I hope there will be adequate time for the proper assessment of children in need.

The appointment of 100 extra personnel was also mentioned by the Minister of State. The HSE itself claims that it will need 400 more therapists in the coming years. I hope that will also be dealt with. One thing that has always struck me in my constituency work dealing with children with special needs and their parents on the issue of special needs therapy and assistance is the need for early intervention. Early intervention can be crucial. In many instances it can give a child an opportunity. I refer to speech therapy or whatever other necessary requirements there may be for a specific child. I hope early intervention for children with special needs, which has been mentioned, will also be a priority. The Minister of State said there is going to be a particular focus on it.

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