Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk on this most important matter. First, I welcome Cara and her dad here again today. It is very sad that they have to come here again after being here so many times before. This is still a desperate situation where young families and young parents, when they find that their child is someway not performing to their liking and want to get them assessed, have to wait so long for an assessment, and then to get the therapies they need thereafter. It is so hard, especially in Kerry. We have desperate difficulty in getting these families looked after. Your health is your wealth. We all adore and appreciate the young. For me, that is my grandchildren now. We hope they are and will be fine. That is what we want for them. Every parent wants the best for their child.

While it is one thing to say children must be assessed within six months, therapy and what will be needed after the assessment is another thing. I appeal to this Government to ensure therapists, psychologists or whatever they need are put in place. Funding has to be provided to urgently recruit more therapists to assess these children and young adults presenting with special needs and disabilities.

This has to be a top priority for the Minister for Health and she should stamp her foot on it rather than letting the HSE do what it likes.

Waiting times for assessment of need applicants have to be reduced. How can a child or a young person receive the necessary treatment without a diagnosis? Early intervention is critical and paramount. Assessment, like I said, is only the first step and many parents find that having waited to get the assessment they then face another long wait to access the services their child needs. Many parents have no choice but to go down the route of private assessments and they should be reimbursed when they do this. This is putting a huge burden on families. What about the families who cannot afford a private assessment? What happens to their children and young adults? Applications for financial support for domiciliary care for children and disability allowance when they reach 16 years are complicated and take far too long to process.

St. Francis Special School in Beaufort has requested the establishment of adult day and respite services on the grounds of the St. Mary of the Angels centre for adults with intellectual disabilities. This is critical. St. Mary of the Angels, run by St. John of God, is practically being closed down by stealth. As soon as the people who are there die off their bed is closed down and no one else is put into it. My brother Michael knows it and has been pushing the case for this for so long, but we need to ensure St. Mary of the Angels is revamped. It is in the centre of our county and it is central to everyone. We hear of so many cases where it is suggested people go up to County Meath or far away to some place in Tipperary or at the far end of County Cork. That is not fair on people with intellectual disabilities and their parents who are trying to do their best for them.

It is time this Government stood up to the HSE because it is practically doing what it likes. It has done so. I am not blaming the workers, the nurses or the people on the ground but the top officials, the directors, the people we do not see at all who are pushing the pens and the people who are making the laws. It is time our Minister for Health and Ministers of State at the Department of Health stood up to the HSE. There is so much money going in there and I am very dubious about how it is being spent, because it is certainly not reflected on the ground when people become sick. We have the situation where, but for SouthDoc, there is no doctor to be found anywhere in Kerry after 5 p.m. on a Friday evening.

There is more downtime and people have to wait until morning and try to stay alive, if they can, until morning. There are so many things that need to be addressed. I am appealing to the Government not to fudge on this issue. These are people with disabilities. Ask that little girl up there who is fighting for all our people who need help. We need to do something about this now, make a real attempt to put the funding into it and make sure the HSE delivers on the funding.

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