Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)

More than 15,000 children are overdue their assessment of needs. Approximately 1,000 of these are in my county, Cork. To make matters worse, parents in Cork are waiting up to 30 months for these assessments for their children. This is a far cry from the six months' waiting time required by law. In fact, more than 90% of assessments of need are completed outside of the legal time limit. It is absolutely bonkers.

These delays are not just numbers. They represent real children who are missing out on critical early intervention, which could significantly damage their development and their quality of life. The assessment of need scandal sits within the broader context of extensive and abject policy failure across our disabilities sector, which is causing so many families immense suffering. In a country as rich as this one, it is shameful that so many children have been failed so consistently and so comprehensively. When a child finally does complete an assessment of need, families are often faced with a further abyss of prolonged waiting to access therapies. At one point, waiting lists in Cork and Kerry primary care psychology exceeded 6,000 and waiting times were close to six years for some children.

The current situation is certainly untenable. We cannot in good conscience allow the children of this country to languish on waiting lists while their developmental needs go unmet. We must ensure the voices of affected families are heard and that their experiences inform the policy decisions. Every child deserves timely access to the assessments and services they need to thrive, and it is our collective responsibility to ensure no child is left behind. I plead with the Government to please commit this time to taking the necessary actions to rectify this situation and uphold the rights and dignity of all the children in this country.

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