Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While there are a lot of failures this Government is overseeing, the failures in disability services are probably the single greatest failure. Like all the other failures, what we get from the Taoiseach is soundbites rather than solutions.

My experience of dealing with families in Monaghan is a familiar story, from listening to other Deputies. Families are waiting far too long for an assessment of needs. When they get through that particular hurdle, they are waiting far too long for occupational therapy appointments, speech and language therapies and for all the myriad of other supports their children need. There are long waiting lists and waiting times, with people being moved from one centre to another. There is no consistency in terms of the times available. Parents are then forced to pay out of their own pocket to get the therapy for their children. Other parents simply do not have the money to pay out of their own pocket. Despite assurances previously given, the Government is providing no mechanism for those families to be reimbursed to give them some hope.

County Monaghan, as I have said many times in this House, is one of two countries that has no special school despite it being clearly evident there is a need for one. What we get from the Ministers is promises of reviews. There is no need for a review. We have no permanent respite services. In June, I raised these issues with Simon Harris in the Dáil. I had one ask of him, that is, to meet the affected families from County Monaghan. Although he committed he would meet the families, like with so many other issues, that still has not taken place. I received an email in August saying he is trying to find a date in between his festival going. The lived reality of these families is that they have to fight and battle every single day and year. A group home in Carrickmacross was promised in 2006. It was finally built in 2016 and opened in 2022 – 16 years later. Of course, the members of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael showed up for the photo opportunity despite being nowhere to be seen in the long campaign. Likewise, when parents battling for a full permanent respite centre got a temporary respite centre, Fianna Fáil representatives came out of the woodwork with their photo opportunities and their videos and all the rest of it.

The parents of children with disabilities in County Monaghan do not need TDs or Oireachtas Members who will be there on the good days. They need this House, and all elected representatives, to be there on the good and bad days. They need us to end the bad days by, in the first instance, ensuring we recognise that families of children with disabilities have been treated disgracefully. It needs to stop and we need to change the system.

See this speech in context