Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom tréaslú leis na Teachtaí Tully agus Cullinane as an rún seo a chur le chéile.

We parents have to fight tooth and nail to get the basic supports for our children.

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We feel outcast and abandoned.

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We have given up our jobs to care full time for our children with no support.

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I am scared and upset, I don't know what's ahead for my son.

Those are quotes from stories that parents of children with disabilities in Cork have shared with me. Deir na figiúirí go bhfuil 300 duine ag fanacht ar mheasúnú riachtanas i ndeisceart chathair Chorcaí. Tá 131 déanach do staid 2 den phróiseas sin agus tá 102 trí mhí déanach. Tá 204 leanbh ag fanacht le críochnú an phróiseas um measúnú riachtanas. The progressing disability services model is not fit for purpose. Therapists have been removed from special schools without a functioning alternative to accessing these crucial therapies. The children's disability network teams in Cork are very far from being up and running. One such team in north Cork city is so under pressure due to staffing gaps that have never been filled that it has contacted parents encouraging them to complain to the HSE, its own employer, in the hopes of getting some support.

The figures in my constituency are dire. Team 11, for the south east of the city, is missing a psychologist and 2.2 speech and language therapists. West central Cork is missing 2.6 occupational therapists, 1.3 speech and language therapists and 2.2 psychologists. It is the same story in Carrigaline, which is missing one physio, half a speech and language therapist post, more than two occupational therapists and two psychologists. It goes on and on. Family representative groups were meant to be set up under the progressing disability services programme to allow parents to be fully engaged. Not one has been invited to participate. I asked parents in Cork. One local mother was told by an official in the office of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, that funding would be given in order that therapeutic supports taken from schools would be reinstated in special schools. That is still not happening, and the Minister of State said that on 28 January to that parent.

To put it plainly, this uphill battle, this fight for assessments of need and for reinstatement of crucial therapies, basic things to which these children have a right, cannot continue. They are being denied the ability to meet their potential.

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