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

Representatives of the HSE, including Mr. Paul Reid, appeared before the children's committee last week. Under questioning from Sinn Féin, the HSE admitted that it was in breach of the law when it comes to providing children with disability an assessment of needs. This should come as no surprise to the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. I first raised this issue with the Minister of State when the comprehensive assessment of needs was changed to a 90-minute desktop assessment. At the time, she assured the committee that this change would lead to children getting a better service and receiving the life-changing interventions in a timely manner. This did not happen. Waiting lists for occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, psychology and physiotherapy are growing every day.

Does the Minister of State accept that the change that led to that breach in the law happened under the watch of the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte? Does the Minister of State accept that this change only happened under the current Government's watch, not that of the previous Government? Who is going to be held accountable? Will it be the Minister of State, the HSE, both or nobody? We have seen the circling of the wagons by the HSE after the scandal in south Kerry child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, in which children were over-medicated to the extent that they lost their personalities. Nobody in a senior position in the HSE, or in the Government, has been held to account for that so far.

The breach of the law this time has failed children with disabilities, to the extent that they may not reach their full potential. They may not reach their developmental milestones. Is there anything more heartbreaking than a child not being given every chance possible just to grow as a person, physically, mentally and emotionally? Who is going to answer for these failings under this Government's watch? I agree with the Ombudsman for Children, who has said that the HSE is deploying the old-fashioned, three-card trick by moving children from list to list without getting the service they need at the end. Moving children through the alphabet soup of HSE disability lists, such as standard operating procedure, SOP, assessment of need, AON, children's disability network teams, CDNTs, individual family support plans, IFSPs, early intervention teams, EITs, occupational therapists, OTs, and speech and language therapists, SLTs, is simply not good enough.

Parents demand a service that provides children with disability with the care they need, when they need it and where they need it. Apologies at this stage will not cut it. Children and parents deserve the services they need, and children deserve the interventions they need in a prompt manner.

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