James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ministers of State for being in attendance. I wish them both well in their briefs. I also wish the Minister, Deputy Foley, well in her brief. One of the things I urge all three of them to do is to listen to parents of disabled children, engage with parent support groups in every constituency and listen to their lived experience. One of the big issues we see throughout the country is that what the CDNT service says it is delivering and how the parents of the children receiving those services feel they are getting are miles apart. For the Taoiseach to make the statement he made the other day that the CDNT is a service that is not working is a significant statement to make. One of the requests I have of the Minister and Ministers of State is to inquire whether the HSE will carry out a root-and-branch review of every CDNT service in the country to hear from parents who are lucky enough that their children are in the service. We all know the challenges for the parents of children who are awaiting the outcome of the assessment of need to get into the service. If a child gets into the service, regrettably the child in many cases does not get the kind of service he or she needs to progress in life developmentally. That is one request I have.

If I think of my own constituency, Neurodiversity Ireland largely covers the Sandymount area, Involve Autism covers Dublin 6W and the Terenure-Rathgar area while Irishtown, Ringsend and Pearse Street are covered by the neurodiversity, NIRP, group. When one engages with parent support groups, what one learns from speaking to them is that they are banding together to support parents of children with a disability. Often, the services these groups offer in getting access to occupational therapists and speech and language therapy supports at schools are superior to the services that people are getting through the CDNT service. This school-led approach is a very good one. I support it, but we need significant changes in the CDNTs. I hope the Government will request that of the HSE.

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