Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late; I was at a Zoom meeting. I thank the Minister of State for his patience. Life is hard enough for children with disabilities. Families with children who have disabilities are already creaking under the pressure. As the Minister of State will know, waiting lists for children are growing at an unprecedented rate. More than 18,000 children are now on the waiting list for initial contact with the children's disability network team, CDNT. According to the latest data available up to the end of September, 18,473 children are on these waiting lists, an increase of more than 1,000 from the end of May. That is a shocking increase of 6% in only four months. If this trend continues, waiting this could rise by more than 15% in a year which is an enormous toll to put on any children with a disability and their families. These waiting lists are longest in Dublin in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 9 and CHO 7. In CHO 9, I understand 2,295 children have been waiting for more than a year for initial contact with the disability network team. In CHO 7, 1,323 children have been waiting more than 12 months for their initial contact. In total, 2,991 children are on this waiting list in CHO 9 which covers north Dublin and a devastating 77% of those children have been waiting more than a year for contact with their team. That is simply not acceptable and I know the Minister of State will not try to defend it. He knows as well as I do that that is unacceptable and must change. There must be an invention. By comparison in CHO 7, 2,456 children are waiting for contact, meaning that 54% of children have been waiting for more than a year in CHO 7. That sounds good in comparison to CHO 9, but it is not.

It is devastating for the children and their families that they are waiting for so long. The CDNTs are supposed to help families and children navigate their way through the health system but it does not seem to be working in many cases I know of a young lad Seán who has autism. He is from Ringsend and was going to school outside the area in Blackrock. He ended up having to go to a primary healthcare clinic for dental work.

The confusion and lack of services for him was just ridiculous. It should not matter where a child goes to school. He is only going to school in Blackrock because there is not a school locally for him and for children with his disability. There are very long waiting times and there is a very significant problem in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 4 and CHO 8, which cover the midlands, Cork and Kerry. Half or more of the children on the lists in these counties are waiting more than a year. Will the Minister of State give these families and these children any hope or light at the end of the tunnel?

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