Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)

I listened to the Taoiseach today. I am always gobsmacked at how the Taoiseach can sound like he has only walked into the building and suddenly found himself in the position he is in. It is the same when I hear Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs who have actually been in power. Some Fine Gael TDs have been in power for 14 years. That is 14 years of increasing waiting lists. I heard the shocking news today that the waiting list is potentially going to go up to more than 24,000 children.

Among those children is Cameron, who is four and a half and on a 72-month waiting list. He will finish primary school before he has access to any therapeutic interventions. Jaden, who is due to start school in September, needs a cognitive assessment before starting. While forms were submitted in December 2023, he is still waiting. His mother is getting really worried that he will not be able to start school. Similarly, two-year old Evie is on a waiting list. Her mother is dead right when she wrote that the Government’s lack of support is shaping her daughter’s future and that of thousands of other children. Nathan has no school place again this year. His parents have applied to 11 schools and are desperately trying to get him a school place. The irony is that if they refuse to send him to school, the education welfare officer has the legislation and the law behind him or her to bring them to court to either fine or jail them. What are the consequences for the Government? These are just a sample of the dozens of cases in my office. Each parent is desperately trying to get a service for their child.

This really should be enough to bring a Government down. It should be enough to call an emergency. When I spoke to Mark and Cara earlier today, I said that during the economic crash, Fianna Fáil spent, over a weekend, €72 billion of our money, and our children and grandchildren’s money, on the bondholders and bankers. In the Covid crisis, mountains were moved in an instant. Things were changed within weeks and days. What is the difference here? We have potentially 24,000 children whose lives will be, possibly, irreparably damaged because of a lack of access to the services they are entitled to. The law says they are entitled to them. This Government is breaking that law. I want the Government to call an emergency because that is what we are looking at in this regard. Call an emergency and take extraordinary measures to ensure each child has a service, a school place and therapeutic intervention when they need it. They are not big asks.

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