Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)

This is not the first time that we have heard about the State's failure of vulnerable children - I think of the boarded-out children in County Kerry in particular - and it will not be the last. Grace's story is another tragic example of long list of failures. After the Farrelly commission, which took eight years and cost €13.6 million, we are still in the dark on the critical issues. We do know that she was failed over and over again and those who tried to speak up for her were shut down.

Her own submissions were not included in the final report. She was only ten when she entered foster care. No social worker visited her for six years. While alarm bells rang about conditions in the home, she remained there for 20 years, and 47 other children were placed in that home and suffered sometimes harrowing abuse. The commission decided not to examine that as part of the investigation. Grace was forgotten by the State. While her case is not unique, as we had the Emily case and the ongoing Brandon case, the system continues to fail vulnerable people, in particular vulnerable children.

I want to raise two other issues. We are still waiting for the review into CAMHS services in north Kerry. After the Maskey report from five years ago, it became immediately clear that the children who were treated in north Kerry were subject to the same failures as those in south Kerry, namely, over-medication and unnecessary antipsychotic medication with extreme side effects such as pain, weight gain, breast milk being expressed by some males and blunting of emotions. So cognitively impaired was one girl whom I spoke to that she did not know whether she was real or in a video game. Lives have been ruined. Time after time, we asked the HSE to include in the redress scheme patients who received apologies so that they are not further punished by having to fork out thousands of euro to bring their cases to justice, but this call has fallen on deaf ears.

I wish to mention one other case. Many schools are waiting for extra hours of special education teacher time through the review process. I was contacted recently by Castlegregory primary school, among others. It is bogged down and bewildered by bureaucracy, spending precious time completing forms and providing further information which seems designed to delay and to save money. Cutbacks are constant, rather than helping the children who are in need of a continuum of support. Children with literacy and numeracy issues are not prioritised as much as they should be. Those who need sensory and movement breaks, have social and emotional needs, trauma, autism and anxiety, and children with school avoidance issues are waiting. The NCSE says it does not have the final say, but who does?

Following a review, schools are obliged to fall into one of four criteria to qualify, but how can schools prove that extra needs emerged in junior classes when the waiting list for psychology in primary care is four years. They used to take complex needs into account. A complete review is necessary here.

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