Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Children with disabilities in south Tipperary and across the country are suffering greatly, especially children with special and complex needs. I have a lot of examples of children who were receiving therapies from primary care teams and have been discharged from that primary care team because they are deemed to have more complex needs that are more appropriate to the children's disability network teams, CDNTs, but the CDNTs do not have the appropriate therapists and the child is left with no place to go. Where a child in this situation has been waiting for longer than three months, the State, whether through the National Treatment Purchase Fund or whatever, should fund that child with those complex needs to get private treatment. If their needs are deemed too complex to be dealt with by primary care, they are sent on to the CDNT but, because of a lack of staff including therapists, they are languishing on waiting lists. These are the most vulnerable and precious children with complex needs. It needs to be dealt with.

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