Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)

As well as being a TD, I am the mother of four amazing children, two of whom have autism. The assessment of need road is very familiar to me. I cannot say I have walked it, because you do not walk this road but endure it. You climb, you fall and you pick yourself up repeatedly. The Government's ongoing inability to uphold the legal requirement to complete AONs within six months is unjustifiable. This is not just a missed deadline; it is a breach of legal duty. More important, it is a betrayal of vulnerable children and their families.

The assessment of need is not a bureaucratic formality. It is a key element to identifying and providing proper supports that children rely on to thrive. Delaying assessment means delaying therapies, supports and a chance of a more equal and dignified life for those children. Families are left in a cruel limbo. Parents watch as their children struggle, knowing that early intervention, proven to make a real difference, is being withheld because of inaction and indifference and because the system that is supposed to help is in fact failing them.

Delays are not a glitch. They are systemic, persistent and unjust and that deepens inequality. They punish those who are already carrying more than their fair share of the burden. A legal obligation is not optional, and every day that passes without emergency action is another day lost for a child who cannot afford to wait. To hear the Taoiseach say this afternoon that he thinks the problem here is the law itself is absolutely mind-boggling. The Government cannot comply with the law, so it will simply change the law. What message does that send to the 14-year-old girl at the gates of Leinster House this evening? What message does it send to those parents who are waiting in absolute turmoil?

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