Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)

Throughout the State, more than 15,000 children are currently overdue an assessment of needs. Under the Disability Act 2005, children are entitled to assessment of their educational and health needs within six months of being on the waiting list, so each of these 15,000 children represent a breach of law by the Government. In my constituency in Clare, parents who are at their wits' end are contacting me. They are watching helplessly as the childhood of their son or daughter passes by year after year with no intervention to improve their quality of life. It is shameful that these parents have to fight every day to try to get the services their children badly need and deserve.

I have been helping a mother whose child was originally screened at the age of seven and referred to CAMHS. That was more than ten years ago. In the meantime, the child has developed further symptoms and complications and is struggling with their mental health because they cannot understand why they are so different from everyone else and have difficulty with everyday interactions. The family's GP has been very supportive but can do little more. The child is now on antidepressants and receiving some counselling from Pieta House. That mother has been pushed from pillar to post. She is constantly having to fight, even to talk to someone about the possibility of her child receiving an assessment. In more recent years, she became concerned her child would be considered an adult and have to start again on a new waiting list. In response to inquiries I made on her behalf, the HSE acknowledged the child was referred to primary care services and was on the primary care register. However, we were also told that an assessment service is not currently provided by primary care services. A private provider was commissioned to provide the service but later found it could not recruit the people it needed and this arrangement was scrapped.

We were not told, however, how much time had elapsed between the beginning and end of that process. How long was wasted waiting for a private provider to reach the conclusion it could not provide the service for which it had been commissioned? I was told by one parent that it took two years to realise the process would not work. We were also told that in an effort to address the unacceptable waiting times for children on the primary care register, the HSE was engaging with private providers to outsource multidisciplinary assessments. Will the Minister of State explain why the previous process involving private providers failed but this one is expected to succeed? As the process has just commenced, we could not even get an expected date for when the service will be provided. Can the Minister of State provide a target start date for the service? The nearest thing we got to reassurance was being told the child would remain on the waiting list and would be seen in chronological order regardless of how long they would have to wait. This is simply unacceptable. Their childhood is wasting away and they will never get that time back.

Another parent of a nine-year-old child described the enormous strain it places on her and her family who are struggling to help the child. They have been waiting for three years for an assessment and without it, the child has not received the supports they need. This mother received much the same response as we did to our inquiries, that a private provider was unable to recruit the necessary staff, a different provider is in the process of attempting to recruit staff and the HSE is awaiting results of its efforts. What is the point of repeating the same failed strategy? Parents should not have to spend their lives fighting to get the services their children are entitled to.

The Government's failure to implement the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 has resulted in the education system and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, not being able to deliver for children in school environments. This places additional burdens on already overburdened specialist services. Can the Government provide a date for the full implementation of the 2004 Act? Can the Minister of State provide a target date for when the Government will be compliant with the six-month rule set out in the Disability Act 2005?

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