Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)

The vast majority of the statements here today reflect the absolute anger we all feel about the shambles in the assessment of needs. I refer to the shambles of the 529.77 whole-time equivalent unfilled posts in the CDNTs, the failure to retain staff in both primary care and the CDNTs, the reliance on private assessments because the State cannot get its act together and the devastation for parents as they watch their children regress because they cannot access the services they need. I wish to reflect on what comes after a child eventually gets their assessment of need. In many cases they are waiting three or four years, particularly in my area in the northside of Dublin, for that to happen. Then, of course, they wait another three to four years for those therapies. I recall a time when the CDNTs in my area would say to me that they could not assess until they were ready to provide treatment of therapies to the child. I did not like the answer at the time but they were right. However, even now, those children who have got the assessment of need are waiting another three to four years and that is wrong. The distress and upset out there is absolutely enormous. Families who have been left waiting for so long are now having their hopes dashed and replaced with a seething frustration. They have a document to say which therapies the child needs and yet they have no idea when they are going to get them. This is the abject failure of the State to provide for some of our most vulnerable children.

When we look at the waiting times for those children who have been assessed, it is really astounding. In just three years, there has been a 199% increase in the number of children waiting over one year for their initial assessment for speech and language therapy. For psychology, the number of those waiting over a year has jumped 170% in just three years. There are 11,552 vulnerable children out there deemed to need psychology supports who have been left waiting for over a year. It is absolutely heartbreaking. What damage is this State doing to those children by failing to provide those supports? The horrible reality is that the number of staff who have been recruited in that time has been a tiny fraction of the twofold increase. It is a reflection of a system that is truly broken and desperately failing these children. We are all aware of the crucial need for timely intervention for children. Now the Government needs to seriously rethink the progressing disability services strategy and the Roadmap for Service Improvement 2023-2026. We need to have a fundamental rethink of how, where and when these services are provided to children because the current system is not working. When I say that, I do not mean they should be getting anything less than they deserve or any diminution of the service to which they are entitled but we need to have a rethink of how things are being done.

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