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

This is largely a technical Bill to give effect to the Government's decision to transfer a function from the Department of Health to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in regard to the provision of specialist, community-based disability services. I hope it not just window dressing. The Government's focus should be on improving disability services and making them fit for purpose. This Bill and all its 65 sections will not achieve anything in the here and now. It is like rearranging the deckchairs on Titanic.

Ireland remains one of only three EU states not to have ratified the protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD, which would give people with a disability the right to take their case to the UN. Psychosocial disabilities are mental health disabilities and people have rights in this regard under the CRPD. Even though most of the disability remit is moving to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, this does not mean the Department of Health will not be accountable under the CRPD for the needs of people with psychosocial disabilities. Neither Department can exclude people with mental health difficulties and the Government will need to ensure their rights are respected and their voices included.

God forbid if children with a disability had the right to take cases to the UN arising from the State's abject failure to provide disability supports. The UN would not know what hit it. At present, there are more than 71,000 children with disabilities waiting for life-changing treatment, including occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, psychology, dietetics, physiotherapy and many others. It is concerning that more than 19,000 of these children are waiting longer than a year, and many of them much longer, with no light at the end of the tunnel for desperate parents. I have pointed out before to the Minister of State that the Ombudsman for Children has described provision in this area as an old-fashioned three-card trick whereby children are moved from list to list without getting the necessary treatment at the end of it.

The Government has abjectly failed to get to grips with the cost of living crisis facing workers and families. I mention this because I want to put it into context in terms of what it means for parents of children with disabilities facing these never-ending lists for treatment. Earlier this month, at a meeting of the children's committee to discuss child poverty, we heard from representatives of the Clondalkin Cares Food Bank, which is based in my area, that parents are accessing its service who find themselves in poverty because they cannot access timely treatment for their children with disabilities. These parents have had to find private providers to give their children the life-changing treatments, such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy, which the Government should be providing. They have simply had to make a choice between putting food on the table and accessing the treatments their children desperately need and deserve. No parent should be put in this impossible position. Yesterday, a parent contacted me to say she is way behind on her bills as she has had to pay more than €2,000 this year alone to a private provider for therapy for her child. Will the cost of living measures the Government is to announce address this problem? I do not think so. Will moving the responsibility for provision to another Department address the issue here and now? I do not think so.

Behind every one of the statistics I mentioned is a child. These are children who, because of the Government's failures, have missed many opportunities in life. They are children who are not reaching their full potential or their developmental milestones. Last week, we had a long debate in this House on the misdiagnosis and mistreatment of children by the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, in south Kerry. I met some of those parents in Tralee last week and their stories are absolutely heartbreaking. Parents, and I include myself in this, trust medical experts when it comes to our children's care, but trust seems to be at an all-time low in this regard. These parents and children were so badly treated that words fail me. The problem is not confined to south Kerry. We have heard similar stories in north Kerry, Cork and Wexford, and I suspect they are just the tip of the iceberg. While the responsibility for mental health provision will not be moving Departments under this Bill, one of the common themes from the parents to whom I spoke was their belief that one of the reasons their children were overmedicated was that they were not receiving the therapies they needed, including occupational therapy and speech and language therapy, simply because those services are not available.

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