Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

Last week it was reported that more than 14,000 children are waiting for an assessment of need. As is the same with everybody else I am sure, one of our constituents has a son who was diagnosed with a moderate intellectual disability and had an assessment of needs conducted in 2016. The family was informed he required psychological, speech and language, and occupational therapy but he has never received these services. It appears that the HSE is conducting assessments but is failing to deliver the required services. This situation is unacceptable and needs urgent attention to ensure that children receive the support they need.

Also, for children with disabilities who have to travel to special needs schools, the lack of adequate drivers and vehicles and the lack of communication with the parents on when they will receive their transport is nothing short of shameful. This seems to happen at the start of every single school year and in some cases it continues on during the year. Parents cannot kick up for fear that they may lose their transport completely.

With regard to people with disabilities, I want to reiterate that Independent Ireland firmly believes that the carer's means test needs to be abolished. I have consistently emphasised that point in the Dáil. It is a fundamental issue. These individuals are providing care to the most vulnerable in our society and they should at least receive the basic carer's allowance. The Ministers of State know the stories and they must hear these themselves all of the time. Now is the time to change things. We need to put the most vulnerable in our society at the top of the list and perhaps spend less of our time on the worries around the world; we need to have a little more time to take care of our own here.

Somebody on the Government benches spoke about the medical certificate and I would like to talk about it also. It reminds me of how many constituents come to me who want a medical certificate for a vehicle or an adapted vehicle and are being refused. These are people in wheelchairs and we have consistently said that we will ensure that that law changes and that these people will be looked after. If one went in with no legs or no hands, one will come out without a cert. Who is making these decisions? There was a court case about this and the decision was to bring change within government and it has not happened so people still cannot get the medical cert. Respect must be shown to people with disabilities. I am worn out from people coming into me and I presume it is happening to all Deputies as I am not the only TD to whom people come in to express the frustration they feel when they have to drag their family out, get people out of bed and are still refused.

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