Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

Not a single day goes by on which this Government does not break the law regarding the statutory timeline under the Disability Act for an assessment of need. In a previous Commencement matter with the then Minister of State, she described it as "Groundhog Day" and "as bad as it can get". Unfortunately, it has got worse since then. Now over 15,000 children are waiting on an assessment in my own area of Kildare, where we have the second highest number of children who are overdue an assessment. Nearly 1,700 children are overdue an assessment in Kildare and Wicklow. Even if a child receives an assessment, they are likely to languish on another waiting list with many other children. Waiting lists are in the tens of thousands for essential therapies with over 20,000 children waiting on psychology and occupational therapy, 19,000 waiting on speech and language therapy and nearly 10,000 are waiting on physiotherapy.

Every expert agrees that early intervention is key. We are all aware of this and many Ministers are on record acknowledging this fact. Yet the average wait time for the CDNT in Kildare is more than three years. The Government is missing the critical point for early intervention for these children. It is simply failing them. The Government needs to provide transparency and accountability on this issue. It should be publishing monthly waiting lists for assessment of need and therapies. We need to know that these figures are going in the right direction. Parents need to see some light at the end of what can be a very dark tunnel for their children who need help. We need to train more therapists and specialists. We need to see them on the ground working in schools but there seems to be no strategy for this from the Government. We know there is no quick fix but there are many ways in which the Government can provide immediate relief to those children and their families. Short- and medium-term measures need to be considered by the Government, such as the Labour Party proposal to outsource diagnostic assessments for children waiting the longest. Another proposal is to utilise the National Treatment Purchase Fund to reimburse parents who have already paid huge amounts for private therapies. In the programme for Government there is a mention of grant funding for children's therapies. I ask again for clarity on this fund as I have done before. It may go some way towards addressing the long wait times if parents can access private therapies through a temporary Government grant.

Not for the first time, I raise the issue of the national child development centre to be operated by Sensational Kids. I am aware that the organisation will submit its proposal to the HSE for capital funding in the coming weeks. It is sad to see this potential state-of-the-art treatment centre lying block-high and unfinished in Kildare town. It would have the capacity to see 300 children per week, taking them from the waiting lists I have spoken about in my earlier contribution, but it would also importantly offer much-needed clinical placements and mentoring for the therapists, OTs and other specialists, clinicians and consultants we need in this country. We need to offer them the opportunity to get the placements so many of them are struggling with at the moment. I ask the Minister to urge all in government to get behind this much-needed development in the State. Later this evening we will have the opportunity to discuss this matter further and mention Cara Darmody and her Dad, Mark. I look forward to that. I look forward to mentioning what Cara has done in the battle for her two brothers and also going into some detail of cases I am currently dealing with in my own area of Kildare South.

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