Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Bill makes the HSE accountable to the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for the management of delivery of the specialist community-based disability services and the development of a service plan, a corporate plan and capital plans. I hope this is not just about rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The focus should be on improving disability services. In my opinion, the Act on its own will deliver nothing on the ground. What the people are asking is what it means to the hundreds of thousands who are directly affected by a severe lack of facilities in our communities. People who are struggling to get assessments and services want to see real, fundamental change in how people who need the services are able to access those services. What is needed is massive investment in those services that are now passing to the Minister.

For example, what change will this bring about for the thousands of children who are waiting on ASD services? The wait is so long that many age out or get just one or two sessions. They are four or four and a half years of age, they get one or two sessions and then they age out at five years of age. They then go from early intervention onto the school age team, and I know this personally because I have been involved in school completion for many years. Talk about knocking people’s heads off a brick wall. There is a deep frustration that parents feel when they have to go back on another waiting list. The team is massively under-resourced. I met the disability services manager a while back. They have 120 people in places and another 120 on the waiting list, and they can only take in about ten or 15 a year. There is massive under-resourcing.

With regard to dyslexia and the lack of specialist schools for children to enable them to get the support they need to help them to flourish and grow in mainstream schools, short-term intervention can make a lifelong difference. There must be co-ordination between health and education services to ensure children get the supports they need.

Danu Community Special School in Dublin 15 has been calling for an onsite therapist. Under progressing disability services, unfortunately it has not been awarded one. I am sorry the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is not present because both he and I visited the school just before Christmas and we saw the amazing work it does. Unfortunately, it is desperately in need of a therapist onsite to work with it. It is really struggling to deal with the difficulties it has within the school. If there is one thing I ask the Minister of State to take from today, it is to look at the services at Danu school and to try to get a therapist there.

I welcome the provision for a review after three years. I hope we do that review well within that three-year period because there is a dire need for a comprehensive overview of exactly where we need to be in the delivery of services for children with disabilities. I wish the Minister of State well in that task.

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