Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

Before the Minister leaves, I want to say to her that the fact she delivered a copy-and-paste speech is an insult to the 15,000 children who she is failing legally in their entitlement. She read out nearly word for word the speech that was delivered earlier. At least she should have had the decency to put it into her own words and pay a bit more respect to this debate tonight. The Taoiseach told us earlier that the Government will continue to break the law. It is simply unacceptable. We live in a State with a surplus of €8.5 billion but we have a 14-year-old girl who is protesting outside the gates of Leinster House for 50 hours because she is standing up for her brothers and for every other child across the State who the Government is breaking the law in relation to. It is a disgrace that this is happening. There is €8.5 billion of a surplus yet we have 15,296 children who are being failed their legal entitlement to have an assessment of need. That is the reality. That is the type of country we live in.

Why has this come about? It has not happened overnight. We have told the Government the solutions over and over again, but it will not listen. It will not resource the system. As Cara rightly pointed out, it is about ideology. I am so impressed by the amazing campaign Cara Darmody has fought - every single person on the Opposition benches can talk about it - but a 14-year-old child should not be fighting a campaign like this. Every person in this State should have the right to have an assessment carried out in relation to the needs they have and then the services should flow after. That we are in this situation is a shame on the Government, as is the fact that the Government’s response is not to fix the problem but to take away the right that was fought for and won 20 years ago in the Disability Act. I refer to the right of someone with a disability - the only right they have - that within six months the State will carry out an assessment of what their needs are. The Government has failed over and over, and because it has no solution to fix the system it is taking away that right. Shame on the Government. We will fight it tooth and nail on this. We do not need to take away rights but to deliver on those rights. Assessments of need must be delivered within six months. The Government can do that by funding the Cara fund, by proper workforce management and by treating this as the emergency it is. Then it needs to make sure all the services and treatments follow, including school places, speech and language and all of the rest.

Do I have any confidence that this Government will deliver? Absolutely not. Shame on this Government that in a country that is rich with resources, a 14-year-old girl has to sleep outside Leinster House to draw attention to its failures.

See this speech in context