Dáil debates

Tuesday, 20 May 2025

Assessment of Need: Statements

 

7:05 am

Photo of Paul MurphyPaul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I thank Cara Darmody for forcing this issue onto the Dáil agenda. Her bravery in protesting outside the Dáil for 50 hours has forced the Government to sit up and pay attention. However, I want to make a very obvious point: that it is a disgrace that Cara and other disability campaigners, including the parents of children with additional needs, are having to resort to sleep-outs outside the Dáil to try to enforce their legal rights. What sort of society are we living in where children have a constitutional right to an education and a clear right to an appropriate education in their community under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, where in law you have the right to an assessment of needs within six months, where we have these rights enshrined, we have had these debates, we have passed these laws, in some cases we have a Constitution and we have a UN convention, yet people have to sleep out outside the gates of the national Parliament to try to enforce what are already their legal rights? Even a basic republic is not meant to act in that fashion. You are meant to have a democratic discussion, you pass laws and the laws are meant to be implemented. It is reminiscent of what you read about tsarist Russia, of people petitioning the tsar for their rights to be met. It is obscene that having to sleep outside our national Parliament urging for one's rights to be met is becoming a regular feature of disability justice campaigners.

Then there is the smaller scale. I am sure other Members are in the same position. What Deputy Stanley spoke about is exactly the same as the situation in Dublin South-West. The issue of parents of children with additional needs is now definitely the second issue after housing that comes to me. I now have a close relationship with solicitors whom I immediately put parents in touch with, saying, "You can take the State to court for that." That is incredible. The State is breaking its own laws and then we, correctly, have to encourage people to take the State to court just to get the State to move - because it works. People know that if you take the State to court, you will get your assessment of need eventually. Similarly, by the way, you can take the State to court for not meeting your educational needs. Again, it is obscene that we have a law and that the State, the Government, is breaking its own law and then 25 families a month have to take the State to court at significant expense, not to them but to the State, in order for this to happen. The parents are absolutely right to do it - they are fighting for what they can for their kids - but it creates another inequity. It does not cost any money, to be clear; many solicitors will do it for nothing and then they will win the case and the State will pay. However, those parents who know that this exists as an avenue and so on are the ones who end up getting the assessments of need not on time but more on time than those who do not know that this is a route they can take. It is outrageous.

The pattern for the Government has been one of tea and sympathy on these issues but no real action where it counts. The motion will be passed tonight - that is welcome - but then will the Government act? The problem for the Government is that the roots of this crisis run deep and are all of its own making. Fifteen years ago, 1,000 children were waiting on assessments of need; now there are more than 15,000.

The HSE projects that to rise to 25,000 by the end of this year. The Minister spoke about welcome progress with the increase in the number of assessments but in the context of the increased need overwhelming the system, it is difficult to talk about progress. The reason for this is that the Government has consistently failed to plan for needs it knows exist. Not only that, it has actively ignored those needs by ensuring the assessments of individual needs are delayed. It should be emphasised, as mentioned, that this is just the start of a journey of long waiting lists, of being let down and disappointed and of parents being offered group sessions when they want their kids to get the necessary therapies and supports they need. The average waiting time for an assessment of need is now more than two years, during which a child cannot access the therapies they need in the public system. It is a way of rationing resources, forcing those who can afford it to go private and saving money for the Government regardless of the human cost.

When faced with determined campaigners like Cara Darmody and the Equality in Education campaigners, the Government may regret its extreme rationing of resources, which created the current crisis, but there is an attempt to find other systems to blame. The Taoiseach's remarks earlier that effectively blamed the model of CDNTs miss the point. I welcome the decision to have therapists go into schools. It makes sense, but it does not deal with the fundamental problem of the high level of vacancy. Situating therapists in schools versus in CDNTs will not deal with the fundamental issue of resources, and nor will changing the law. Every time I hear that suggestion, I hear that the Government is breaching the law and that instead of stopping to breach the law, it wants to change the law so that it will not be breaching it, without dealing with providing assessments of need in time.

The fundamental issues include the years of restricting the number of college places for therapists. There are between 25 and 40 in most specialties, when there should be more than 100 a year. Other issues include the years of austerity cuts and the underfunding of the health service, the pay and numbers strategy, and the years of enabling the housing crisis to get worse so that rents and property prices rise. There is an alternative. There are plenty of actions the Government could take such as bonuses, speeding up recognition and improving training. I could go on and on.

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