Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I indicated the massive figures of absences and vacancies in the sector but I want to drill down to what this means for an individual child. I have been contacted by a constituent who is a foster mother of a child. She has worked tirelessly to help her young boy. The boy presents with significant complex behavioural problems and has been expelled from two preschools and four times already from primary schools. He is currently on reduced school hours because of the situation and he is falling back in his education massively. Despite urgent GP referrals to CAMHS, he is facing a 14- to 18-month wait for an initial assessment. In the meantime, his condition is deteriorating and his education is severely disrupted. Referrals to speech and language therapy and other services have yielded nothing but long waiting times, and his GP believes he needs immediate interventionist care. The foster mother, who is doing her utmost for this child, has contacted Tusla, CAMHS, disability services, social workers, private psychologists - everywhere she turns she meets delays. That is what those absences, those massive levels of vacancies, mean to an individual child.

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