Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being here. Last week, the Dáil debated the motion in respect of the assessment of need scandal, as I would describe it, where Government is flagrantly breaching the law on a daily basis in terms of providing assessment of need for children with disabilities in particular. What might have got lost in that scandal is that for many families of children who have received assessment of need, their battle only starts there. In Monaghan and Cavan we have CDNTs that are at crisis point. In March, in a response to a parliamentary question I received from the HSE, it was confirmed at least 12 posts were unfilled. These ranged from social workers, speech and language therapists, psychologists, OTs and across virtually every discipline. Although I have not received the information, I suspect the situation is worse in County Cavan because the numbers of parents who are contacting my office at absolute crisis point is increasing all the time. In County Monaghan this is an issue that has been getting steadily worse in respect of the length of time people are expected to wait for appointments and then the routine in which appointments are offered. There is a pattern with many families who contact me; I am sure it is the same for other Deputies and elected representatives. The families contact us to let us know they are waiting on OT, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy or other appointments in some cases for years without hearing a dickey bird. They contact our office and we contact the CDNT. In some cases, an appointment is offered fairly quickly and there is a pattern of a number of appointments within a short period of time. Then it all starts again; radio silence. Of course, that is because the CDNT is under huge and immense pressure and it is trying to juggle all of the competing demands of families who are in very stressed situations.

My call on the Minister of State this morning is to ensure there is a direct intervention at every CDNT level. First, to decide whether the structure of the current CDNTs within each region is fit for purpose, whether the level of service delivery is up to the standards any of us expect and that those families would deserve and, second, to ensure adequate resources are within each CDNT. I mention particularly the issue of staffing allocations because there is clearly a problem. I do not know if this is across every CDNT but certainly in the two of which I am aware there are huge and substantive gaps that are resulting in a situation that means even if the posts were to be filled tomorrow we would have backlogs that would last for years. There is a need for direct intervention from the Department and the HSE to ensure those blatant gaps are addressed. I do not think it is fair to expect CDNT managers, who are dealing with all these families while at the same time trying to fill staff gaps when they emerge, to also have a holistic eye to the long term which is what is required if we are going to get a handle of this situation.

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