Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

If he arrives I will be. First, I thank the Labour Party for tabling this motion. It is an indication of the scale of the crisis that we have, that Opposition parties repeatedly have to table motions to address these issues.

Unfortunately, the statistics contained in the motions get worse rather than better as we have motion after motion. Rarely, thankfully, does the Government oppose a motion. Normally it accepts them, agrees with them and says it would like them to happen but then the situation continues to worsen. The bottom line is that it is a national scandal that more than 100,000 children are on waiting lists for some form of disability assistance, intervention or occupational therapy. That is an incredible number of people. That number of children means close to 100,000 families are impacted. They are set for multi-year waits in most cases. They are going to be on waiting lists, waiting for services their children desperately need and waiting for years before they get them.

What always gets me when discussing these issues is that the State pays lip service to the idea of early intervention. The science behind it is impeccable. Obviously it makes sense to intervene as soon as possible. That has real impacts on outcomes. However, the State pays lip service to early intervention and then allows children to languish on waiting lists for years, without getting the assistance and interventions they need, and their conditions may worsen as a consequence. That is a scandal anywhere but especially so in one of the richest countries in the world when today we have lawyers paid for by the public, by the same families who are on these waiting lists, fighting so that Ireland will not receive tax from one of the biggest corporations in the world. It speaks to the priorities of this State.

The report by FUSS Ireland to which Deputy Cairns referred is important. The work that FUSS has been doing is excellent. It was the disability rights movement that came up with the slogan “nothing about us without us”, fighting so that the voices of those affected are brought to the centre of any decision making. The work of organisations such as FUSS Ireland and other campaigners always impresses me. Those people have enough going on in their lives and have enough stresses in their personal and family lives in trying to get what their children need, yet some of them find the time and have no choice but to stand outside the Dáil and to produce comprehensive reports to try to get national policy changed in the direction we need. The report, Thoughts and Experiences of PDS, which is the new national programme, is striking. The bottom line is that 97% of respondents identified staffing, recruitment and retention as vital threats to the success of service provision. We can move around the pieces this way or that, but as long as there are not enough resources and as long as we do not employ enough staff to help children, we will have significant problems. That is the bottom line point. Furthermore, 45% of respondents agreed that staff pay and conditions play a major role in the inability of PDS to retain its current staff and entice more to join the workforce, while 80% of respondents believe the PDS model and subsequent reconfigurations failed and 16% remain unsure. A sentence in the foreword sums it up: "The lack of funding, the lack of political will to drive change and ultimately the absence of accountability for multiple generations of children who have been failed by their government." Those are the themes that echo throughout this report and throughout the experience of families who have to deal with this system.

Reading the quotes from children, families and workers affected it is striking. I will give a couple of examples to give a picture of it:

We are sitting languishing on a list - I have been able to access SLT and OT privately - I am paying €90 per week for SLT, OT assessment alone was €350. Awaiting private psychology assessment in June which will cost €1500. I have 4 children, Costs are high, I feel like we are absolutely killing ourselves to give our child the best chance in life. Barely contact from HSE, they don’t give me any confidence or hope for a service.

Another quote:

I feel we have been sold a total lie. The policies, procedures, and guidelines about how the services should be run on CDNTs is disingenuous, given that there isn't a team in the country that is anywhere near adequately staffed. I have been working as a clinician in Ireland and abroad for 15 years and have never encountered such a poor staff to child/young person ratio, and to think this is in a service for children with identified complex needs is outrageous. It is so disheartening as clinicians and CDNMs as we keep raising all the risks but seem to be getting no traction.

Another quote later is particularly telling in regard to the downward vicious cycle for the workers in these services. The point was made by many speakers that these workers got into this area to help children but they are faced with this nightmare situation. As one person said:

Workload insane. And no hope of any improvement. Can't interact with families as often as I'd like as its crisis management. Yes health negatively impacted suffering from burnout stress and recent onset of depression - myself and colleagues cry in work frequently as its all just negative experiences. The model works if there's resources to run it, I'd hate for it to be abandoned altogether without it having ever been given a chance but feel like families will never believe in it now.

There is quote after quote from both sides of the experience telling us what the reality is. That is the bottom line. What comes through is the whole question of resources.

I wish to deal with the question of education. I believe that is another aspect of this national scandal. The Ombudsman for Children highlighted a year ago what he described as the State failing children with special needs. This farcical but also outrageous situation persists. Every morning across Dublin city and throughout the State, children in one part of the city get into taxis to be driven to another part of the city or in some cases another county to access the educational services they need. It makes no sense whatsoever. It is not the best for children who deserve to be educated in their local communities and local schools. For example, in Tallaght we have 17 primary schools with special classes. However, in secondary schools we only have two. This leads to a situation where people graduate from primary school and literally have nowhere to go. They are forced to go outside their areas.

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