Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

In 2025, just 7% of assessments have been completed within the legal timeframe set out in the Disability Act 2005. To say that some children are being failed is an understatement; 93% of children requiring an assessment of need are being failed. Experts in the field advise that early intervention is critical. It allows for a family to plan the supports that a child with an autism diagnosis will need and to arrange the provision of any additional supports the child may need when entering the education system.

The inclusion in the Disability Act 2005 of a legal requirement for children to be assessed within six months of referral demonstrates how important this is, yet 15,296 children are on assessment of need waiting lists. This list looks set to only grow, with an estimate of 24,000 children being on the list come the end of 2025. On average, children are waiting 32 months, more than five times longer than the Disability Act allows for. This is what parents are facing. This is the level of failure when it comes to children with disabilities. I was contacted by a family whose son was referred for an autism assessment in September 2022, when he was four years old. They are loving parents and they want a good quality of life for their child, like the parents of any other child in this State. To date, however, he has not had that assessment. If he waits 32 months for the assessment, the young lad who was four years old when the referral went in will be seven years old when he is fully assessed. That is just not good enough.

With these wait times, children and their families are being failed. We know that early assessment is crucial to ensure children and parents get the supports needed so that children on the autism spectrum can live fully and have happy childhoods. When the wait time for an assessment of need is 32 months, however, early intervention is impossible. These assessments are needed early so that these children can avail of specialist school support to help them learn. Without the assessment, they will not be added to a specialist class or a hub but on this element, too, the Government is failing. The failure to implement the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 has meant the education system is struggling to deliver for children in the school environment.

At every hurdle, the Government parties have stumbled on this issue. Waiting lists are rising, schools do not have the resources and 93% of children in 2025 are not being assessed as promptly as the Disability Act recommends.

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