Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The pandemic has disrupted education for all, but it has had further implications for children with disabilities. As the Minister of State said, it has disproportionately affected this group of children. As schools turned to remote learning, countless parents have seen their children regress. Many children with disabilities need the structure that schools offer. Others need interventions that are difficult to provide remotely, such as hands-on instruction, occupational therapy and special needs assistance.

The loss of school for this group of children was much more than a denial of education. It was the loss of meaning, routine, therapy, socialisation, peer interaction and fun. The Children's Ombudsman has said that it is no surprise that stories of regression and challenging behaviour were arriving into his office during every lockdown and that parents were crying out for schools to be reopened for this group of children. In my area of Dublin Mid-West, parents have contacted me seeking to obtain additional supports in school because of their children's regression. Parents whose children attend a semi-mainstream class in St. Peter Apostle National School in Neilstown are adamant that their children now need to be in a special educational class because of how far they have regressed. The problem is that the school does not have the capacity to provide this. Will the Minister of State look at how she can support families such as these?

I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, will answer some of the questions I am about to ask in her closing statement. As a result of this year's cyberattack, it is very difficult to obtain some of the information for which we are looking. One of the issues I have consistently raised with the Minister of State is that of children having timely access to assessments of need. Earlier this year, the HSE and the Minister of State's Department streamlined these assessments to ensure they reach as many children as possible. I am a bit in the dark. I do not know if this is working because we have not been given the information from the HSE. I was very critical at the beginning and I was afraid that this was a box-ticking exercise and that children were to be moved from one service to another without actually getting the services they need. In the absence of these data from the HSE, I hope the Minister of State will be able to circulate a report in this regard or to refer to the matter in her closing statement and let us know how it is going, if it is working and if children are getting the help they need in a timely manner.

Another barrier to children accessing disability services in my area of Dublin Mid-West is the lack of primary care centres. There are 120,000 people living in my area, which includes Clondalkin, Lucan, Palmerstown, Rathcoole, Newcastle, Saggart and Brittas. Does the Minister of State know how many primary care centres there are to serve this population? One does not need a calculator. There is not one. Construction started on one in Clondalkin very recently. The one in Rowlagh has been held up as a result of a dispute between the Departments of Health and Education. This has been ongoing for some time. There is no sign of the proposed primary health care centres in Adamstown or Lucan. For children to access the services they need, the Government needs to put the infrastructure in place for these disability teams.

I will make one last point. I am one of the more than 800,000 Irish people who are living with a neurological condition. Most people who have neurological conditions will require neuro-rehabilitation services at some point. These services are critical in supporting recovery and preventing disability for those with a neurological condition. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007 and can speak at first hand of my experiences and difficulties in accessing neurological services in a timely manner and the impact these difficulties had on me as an individual and on my family, my job and my employment at that time.

Earlier today I met with representatives of the Neurological Alliance of Ireland, who had serious concerns about the lack of progress in the implementation of the national neuro-rehabilitation strategy. It is nearly a year since the current programme for Government was published. This programme included a commitment to implement this strategy. The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in serious pent-up demand for rehabilitation services for new and existing neurological needs in addition to creating further demand for rehabilitation to meet the needs of patients with long Covid. The HSE national steering group with responsibility for the implementation of the neuro-rehabilitation framework has not met at all in 2021. This is not good enough. The Minister of State's Government has promised neuro-rehabilitation teams in each of the nine community healthcare organisation, CHO, areas across Ireland. So far, two have been delivered. There are 23,000 people waiting for neurology appointments as we speak. With the onset of Covid, this waiting list will only get longer. We need political will and we need to start putting things in place to resolve this issue.

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