Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Many constituents who come to my office raise serious issues about their children who may be autistic or have a disability and need assistance. In fairness, the Government has done a good enough job, especially in introducing investment in special needs education in schools. I welcome the provision for the employment of additional special education teachers and special needs assistants, SNAs, with the number of SNAs to go above 20,000 for the first time. It will definitely help families.

However, I would like to address the inconsistency that exists throughout the State in respect of both the availability and type of services that are accessible to disabled children and adults. I must highlight that there are significant service delays in this area, especially in therapeutic intervention.

Families of children with a dual diagnosis of autism and a moderate learning disability are in crisis in Louth and east Meath. I am aware of 15 families who have adolescent children with autism and a moderate learning disability who urgently require a psychiatric review but have been told by the HSE the service is unavailable as there are no psychiatrists on the HSE team. In addition to no psychiatrists being available, the only paediatrician available in Louth and east Meath is Dr. Maeve McCormack. Dr. McCormack only deals with children who are 16 years old or younger and there is currently a four- to five-month waiting list. Child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, will not see teenagers who have a dual diagnosis, and these adolescent children cannot be seen by the mental health team until they are 18 years old.

A common trait for children with autism who are transitioning into adolescence is high anxiety levels and obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD, behaviours. As many of these adolescents are non-verbal, they display their anxiety and OCD through self-injurious behaviour, including hitting themselves with force, property destruction, poor sleep patterns and assaulting others. Many of these families live in constant fear of attack from their adolescent child. They live in houses that have been significantly damaged by their adolescent child. I know of one situation where an adolescent child has flooded the house by pulling the radiators off the walls and architrave from around doors. The same family have no door on their bathroom due to this destruction. In addition, many of these adolescent children have younger siblings who are also in danger of being hurt. This situation cannot continue any longer.

There are not enough home and respite services. In fact, respite services nearly ground to a halt during the pandemic. The same people are being affected repeatedly, and we wonder why people are struggling with their mental health. We must do everything we can to support them and their carers.

A constituent recently visited in my office in Louth to complain that, in all of Dundalk, only one taxi is kitted out for wheelchair access. Are our disabled constituents to stay at home? Transport solutions and mobility supports for those with a disability must be targeted immediately.

Grants of a maximum of €30,000 are available to assist people with a disability in carrying out necessary work to make a house more suitable for their needs, but there is not enough money to go around for all the applicants. I welcome these schemes but people with disabilities are vulnerable and we need to ensure this work is carried out as quickly as possible, especially coming into the winter. The criteria for these schemes need to be reassessed with a view to getting it done quicker. The grant is means tested and an assessment needs to be carried out by an occupational therapist. The issue is value for money, but trying to get an occupational therapist to examine many of these houses in my local authority in County Louth is nearly impossible, highlighting again the shortage in accessible intervention.

There are some cases in my constituency where people have acquired injuries and are now confined to a wheelchair. They are trying to adapt their homes to make them fit for independent living, and €30,000 will not cut the mustard in that situation. The number of people over the age of 65 is expected to reach 1.4 million by 2040. These grants are going to be increasingly important for the ageing population but also for families and carers of those with disabilities. We need to keep the pressure off the hospitals.

This upper limit on the housing adaptation grant has remained the same for 13 years. It is important to say the upper limit certainly does not reflect the increases in the costs. The Government must allocate additional resources to local authorities to manage these schemes, to provide the investment required for local authority housing stock and to increase the budget allocation to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Government should also ensure the grant scheme can meet the demand and reflect the increase in construction costs. More must be done to ensure grants are linked to the costs of the specific works as a percentage of costs and to allow discretion for people with disabilities to ensure the grants meet the individual needs of the disabled person to live independently.

The odds are stacked against those with a disability and our ageing population. The Government needs to enable local authorities to meet the costs involved, address inflation and ensure measures can be provided in a timely manner.

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