Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that the Minister is replying on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Reilly, but I have written to the Minister about Beechpark Services previously and the issue has been raised by my colleague, Deputy Billy Kelleher, and other Deputies in the Dáil over the last two years. To be honest, the reply has not really changed since then. The Department is still referring to the fact that a review is being undertaken.

The reality is that the services are massively under-funded. There are no early intervention teams in Dublin North at present and children are waiting for massive lengths of time to access the child and adolescent mental health services. One of the children I mentioned earlier is an eight year old who self-harmed. Before the child self-harmed, the school principal referred him to CAMHS but it was only after he had hurt himself that the parent was able to get an urgent appointment. The reality is that the services simply are not there. Beechpark is not serving most of the children in the ASD classes in this school.

The Department's reply referred to the fact that there is an increase in demand because more ASD classes have opened. However, they did not open for no reason, but because the Department of Education and Skills and the National Council for Special Education have been working with schools to get them to open the classes in response to the need. They have been doing their best to provide the services that are required on the educational side. The special educational needs organisers, SENOs, are doing a good job in matching children with the resources that are available. However, the missing part of the picture in all of this is the health provision. Despite the best efforts of the SENOs and the schools involved, the health provision is simply not available.

I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, is replying on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Reilly. I ask him to bring this issue to his attention, stress the urgency and ask him to look at that correspondence personally, rather than just having it looked at by somebody else in the Department. He must ask the Minister to look at the letter I sent to him about the specific incidents I have mentioned.