Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

-----but it is difficult in this debate when one sees the stark reality of what parents have to face. Children who need intervention are being failed, which is the key word I will use. I do not doubt the Minister of State's bona fides. Rather, I am stating the facts, and the facts are that children are being failed on a grand scale. Parents are being forced to bring the Government to court because it is breaking the Disability Act. They have the stress not only of looking after their own children and seeking interventions, but of bringing the Government to court. Some parents are also being failed because they must go to the private sector and spend significant amounts of money. In some cases, they must remortgage their houses just to get interventions for their children. If a child gets early intervention, regardless of what that intervention is, the outcomes can be very beneficial, not only for the child's development, but for his or her parents.

The stark reality is shown in the figures I received in reply to a parliamentary question I tabled a number of weeks ago.

I wish to record the reply on the Dáil record. My parliamentary question related to waiting times for specific interventions in CHO 7, covering parts of Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare. The reply is stark. The waiting time for an assessment of needs is 15 months. Children have to wait 15 months for an assessment of need, not to mention an actual intervention. This is contrary to the provisions of the Disability Act. The waiting time for speech and language therapy for children with special needs is two and a half years, as is the waiting time for psychological services. The waiting time for occupational therapy for children with special needs is 20 months while the waiting time for physiotherapy is 18 months. The Minister of State cannot defend that; he cannot defend a situation where parents with children who need interventions have to wait that long. He knows that the stress that comes with such waiting is incalculable.

The fact that parents and their children are unable to access necessary interventions within a reasonable timeframe represents a complete failure of this Government. This has been going on for the last seven or eight years but it could have been fixed. The welfare of children is paramount, whether we are talking about children in emergency accommodation, in direct provision or those who are disadvantaged by social exclusion and poverty. It is not their fault that they are homeless or that they have to wait two and a half years for an intervention. Parents are the voice for their children and we in this Chamber are the voice for the children who cannot speak up for themselves. If they could speak here, they would say that this Government has failed them miserably.

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