Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise an issue that my colleague, Deputy Ward, raised with me. It is in relation to the €700,000 the State has spent defending court cases taken in the last two years by parents of children whose assessment of need did not comply with the timeframe within the Disability Act. How can the Government defend spending that amount of taxpayers' money on court cases when it is supposed to ensure that assessments of need for children who have or are suspected to have a disability or learning need be carried out in a timely fashion? It is defending the indefensible, it has to stop and the €700,000 or whatever sum might be available to defend court cases should be spent on the children who need the assessment.

I know the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has invested a lot of additional money in getting assessments of need carried out in a more timely fashion and that is welcome. However, it has been pointed out to me time and again that an assessment of need is fine and well but if a therapist is not available to follow up with the treatment identified in the assessment, it is difficult. Parents tell me that children spend years waiting for assessment. Then, when the assessment is done and the needs identified, they spend more years waiting for treatment. I hope something can be done in relation to that sector.

On children in preschool, some of them missed out on three months last year and four weeks so far this year. Those two years are very important because they prepare them for primary school. Parents worry that it might take ages to settle a child back into preschool when they do get back and to prepare them for primary school. Are there any plans to assist in preparing the children for primary school to make up for the time they have missed in the two preschool years?

On the childcare sector generally, the problems relating to pay and conditions continue to exist. Many childcare workers have level 7 or 8 degrees, yet they barely earn the minimum wage or slightly over it. There is, as the Minister of State pointed out, a large turnover here and parents are paying extremely high fees so there needs to be a higher level of investment by the State in childcare on a par with our European counterparts.

I am also contacted regularly by workers within the childcare sector wondering if they will be prioritised for the vaccine. They are working with little people who do not understand social distancing. While children are not generally badly affected by Covid, they are carriers of it, so some workers are quite nervous and feel like they are forgotten about.

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