Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)

I am regularly contacted by parents in my constituency expressing their frustration and despair at the assessments of need process, the lengthy delays and the fact that parents have to fight every step of the way to get an appropriate assessment for their child. One mother told me how her daughter waited nearly three years for an assessment and received no supports in the meantime. She would have paid for one privately but the HSE would not tell her which providers were approved and she could not afford to waste €800 if the assessment was not accepted. The assessment was eventually outsourced and, had she known that the provider that her child was eventually sent to was an approved provider, she would have gone to it two years previously. She said that the whole experience of diagnosis was chaotic and disjointed, and she would not wish it on any family. Another mother told me that she had been forced to fund all of her child's assessments and therapies. She said, "Had I waited publicly, my child would never be in the correct educational setting." Another parent told me of how it took years of battles to be told her child was eligible for an assessment, even though she knew her child was autistic. As a result, they missed out on years of supports and not having any accommodations at school, and had to pay the additional costs for private services, with no domiciliary care allowance, no carer's leave, and battles to get parental leave at work. She said the emotional cost was huge.

These cases illustrate a system that is categorically failing children and their families. While the children in these cases have now received their assessments, Cara Darmody's 50-hour protest at the gates outside reminds us of the more than 15,000 children whose assessment is overdue. While Government will not oppose tonight's Opposition motion, it must not ignore it and we must see action. It is time to treat this crisis like the emergency it is and make funding available to Cara's Fund to clear the backlog and to set a specific target date by which the Government will comply with the established legal obligations, as well as developing an urgent workforce plan to train, recruit and retain enough staff. We also know that the assessment of need is only the start of yet another battle for supports and services. Many parents in my constituency are in touch with me about supports from the CDNT being almost non-existent. There are issues with special needs assistant, SNA, allocations for children with additional needs, which I have raised here previously. Many children continue to be failed even after receiving a diagnosis.

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