Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I know that the Deputy has advocated very strongly on these issues. I am looking forward, from 1 March, to taking on the responsibility for delivery of disability services for children and adults. The Deputy is absolutely right about the crucial issue of the assessment of needs. He knows the history of this. He knows that a new process had been adopted over a number of years. That was challenged in the courts. That process was found not to meet the requirements under the Disability Act, and that requires a reassessment of a very significant number of children and a new assessment process to be in place. We want to ensure that the new assessment process meets fully the criteria of the Disability Act. We do not want this same thing happening again. That is what is taking place now. There is an understanding in not only clinical terms but also legal terms that the new standard operating procedure for the assessment of needs is clinically and legally robust. That will allow us to tackle the backlog and, going forward, will allow children newly presenting to seek assessments of need.

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