Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I am sure the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will not mind if I take this opportunity to wish Katie Taylor, our undisputed world champion, all the very best as she steps into the ring in Madison Square Garden tonight. We are right there in heart and spirit with her. Go n-éirí léi.

Tá sé 20 mí anois tar éis don Rialtas maoiniú éigeandála a gheallúint don chéad uair chun cúram riachtanach a chur ar fáil do leanaí le riachtanais speisialta, ach go fóill níl an t-airgead ar fáil. Tá sé seo scannalach. I have received confirmation that vital funding through the children's disability grant first announced by the Government 20 months ago has still not been released. It is even worse than that. I have a letter stating that despite funding for organisations having been publicly announced by the Minister, organisations have been asked to reapply for short-listing with no guarantee that funding will be provided for projects or be granted.

The grant was announced in 2023 as an emergency fund to fill a gaping hole left by the HSE which was not able to provide vital therapies for children. That was 20 months ago. Parents and children with special needs thought the Government had finally heard their cries for help, but the months went on and nothing happened. No funding was released. Just two days before the local elections in June 2024, then Ministers, Senator Anne Rabbitte and Deputy Charlie McConalogue, held a press event in Donegal re-announcing the funding. Local lad Jack Donaghy, who has cerebral palsy, and his mother, Denise McGahern, were included in the photo op. They were understandably delighted the funding was finally being provided for Jack and many others.

Fast forward nine months to March 2025, there was still no sign of the money being released. Denise went public to express the disgust and anger she felt at her son being as an election prop for a Government photo op. In March, the Tánaiste apologised for the situation going on for so long and said it would not defend something that was indefensible. In regard to the funding, he said that he was going to make sure it is released and provided.

Five days after the exchange between me and the Tánaiste in the Dáil, the Government again announced that funding would be released, yet despite his promises here we are. Three months on no funding has been released or provided. Therapies are still not available. The 54 organisations which thought they successfully applied for the grant have not received a single red cent. Not only that, it gets worse. Some of the organisations concerned understood they would get millions of euro over a three-year period. Funding was announced by the Minister. However, organisations have been told they have to reapply for short-listing and the funding is no longer multi-annual but instead needs to be spent by the end of the year. Organisations only have until the end of the year to spend money that they have not been given.

I have a letter from one of the organisations, which publicly announced what it would receive and has now been told to reapply, stating that there is no guarantee of funding, there is less money than the organisation thought and it all has to be spent this year. The Tánaiste told me in March that he would resolve the issue and make sure the money would flow. The Government has announced this funding on three separate occasions, and each time its promise has disappeared without a trace. There is no follow-through, delivery or funding.

This is about kids with special needs. It is about kids like Jack, who has cerebral palsy.

It is about kids who are in braces, kids who are trying to speak, kids who are PEG-fed and kids who want to walk who are suffering as a result of this. These children and their parents are left crying out for help they have been promised and promised again. It is cruel what the Tánaiste's Government is doing to them. There is no other word for it.

I am going to ask the Tánaiste a couple of questions. When is the money going to be released? When will the funding be put in place so the therapies can be delivered to these children who desperately require them? Can he explain to me why, when two Ministers from the previous Government's Cabinet went to Donegal and announced specific multi-annual money for these projects, the HSE is now telling them there is no guarantee they will even get funding and that there is no multi-annual funding available any more? What is a Government promise worth any more, especially to these children and their families? These are the questions they are asking me today.

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