Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of staffing of children's disability network teams across the country. I have replies here from the HSE that say between 22% and 29% of posts are vacant. In Laois, I can tell the Minister that there are posts where there is 100% vacancy and 67% vacancy.

In Laois, there is a chronic situation regarding staffing. The figures for network 12, which covers most of the county, are absolutely shocking. I will give the Minister a flavour of what they are. Occupational therapy is 33% staffed and 67% vacant. Speech and language is 46% staffed. Physiotherapy is 50%, and these are the three critical disciplines, as I understand it, for children who are on the autism spectrum. If you go down to therapy assistants, there are zero levels of staffing. Dietetics, zero. Behaviour therapists, incredibly, are zero.

I raise this with the Minister on behalf of parents who are at their wits' end on this issue. For children who badly need services and who have autism, ADHD, dyspraxia or a range of other disabilities, the services are not there. These children are missing out on assessments, therapies and, crucially, on care at a crucial stage in their development. We all know that children with special needs require the early interventions. Early intervention equals better outcomes but late or no interventions lead to huge problems later in life. This can cause huge problems for families and children do not go on to live the full lives they should. It is putting enormous pressure on families, so parents, including those who cannot afford it, are going private for assessment and in some cases are borrowing thousands of euro. Sometimes that is from the credit union or from family and friends but sometimes it is from moneylenders.

Voluntary organisations such as Laois Offaly Families for Autism try to plug the gap. A voluntary organisation tried to plug the gap for some families and provide whatever services they could out of their limited resources but they can only do a small percentage of what is needed, so there are gaps in services. This is not a new problem. The problem is older than this House, or the time I am in this House, I should say, and going back to when I was a county councillor. This problem has been raised with me for the last nearly three decades, way back into the 1990s.

A particular problem in Laois is that there is only a third of OT posts filled, with some of the other ones outlined, and some posts have no staffing whatsoever. I know it cannot be fixed overnight, and it means increasing the pipeline. What is being done by Government to increase the workforce supply pipeline? We cannot flick a switch, I understand that.

See this speech in context