David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach and welcome the Minister of State to the House. I tabled this Commencement motion last week and coincidentally, there was a report on Newstalk this morning by Kieran Cuddihy, who obtained figures through a freedom of information request regarding national waiting times for children with mild to profound intellectual or physical difficulties who were waiting for assessment. They showed that 12,650 children nationally are waiting for assessments of whom 3,300 are waiting for longer than the three months that is the Health Service Executive, HSE, and the Government's own benchmark. As for children waiting for treatment, 4,500 are waiting for longer than three months, while 7,908 are waiting for treatment.

At present, I am dealing with a number of families and I wish to give the Minister of State a flavour of their stories, because each individual case has its own personal story to it. These are parents who are battling to get services for their child, who may suffer from a mild to a severe disability, be it intellectual or physical. One such story concerned a child called Harvey, whose general practitioner, GP, referred him to the early intervention team in September 2013. On 19 September 2013, the parents received a letter from the speech and language therapist regarding the referrals with a questionnaire attached. On 29 November 2013, Harvey was assessed by the speech and language therapist and the conclusion in her report pertaining to autism stated that Harvey was demonstrating some clinically significant markers for autism, that this would be monitored in subsequent sessions and onward referral would be made to the autism team, as required, and with parental consent.

The occupational therapist's report, which was based on an assessment carried out on 11 March and 14 April 2014, again referred Harvey on to the autism spectrum disorder, ASD, team for a diagnostic assessment. The family was told this would happen in February or March 2014 but that date came and went. It is now approaching June 2015 and the family still awaits that diagnostic assessment. It had a private assessment carried out, which is accepted by the Department of Education and Skills but not by the HSE, which is the provider of the child services. I have to hand another e-mail from other parents stating their child did not get proper support due to a significant delay in diagnosing and assessing their child. Their son has ASD and received a private diagnosis when he was two. While he receives appropriate resources in school, he is almost seven and the HSE only diagnosed him this year after a long road and battle.

As Members are aware, early intervention is hugely important and these children have complex needs and need multiple therapies. The question I specifically asked the Minister of State, because this is also relevant to where I come from in Waterford and is a national issue now it has been highlighted, is how many speech, language and occupational therapists are in the public system in County Waterford? How long are children with mild to profound intellectual or physical disabilities in Waterford city and county waiting to be assessed? There appears to be a problem with assessment waiting times and these are stories from parents of children who do not deserve to be obliged to battle the State to get support for their children. They simply do not deserve that, as these resources should be provided as quickly as possible and under the timeframes to which the Government itself has committed. Consequently, I raise these issues on their behalf as they have asked me to so do.

Last year, 80 speech and language therapy posts were announced, not all of which were filled and none of which went to Waterford. As another 120 further posts are to be announced, how many of those posts will be delivered in Waterford? It is not just therapists as there also is a need for both child psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, as this is a joined-up system.

The final point I will make is I visited the Sacred Heart Centre in Waterford city, where the staff provide fantastic support. It is a joint venture between the Department of Education and Skills and the HSE but the building is dilapidated.The children have complex needs and the building is not fit for purpose. There is a real need for resources to be put into this area. Unfortunately, due to waiting times and the lack of therapists, staff and capacity in the system, children are waiting longer than they should. The children in question have complex needs and we should not fail them. We should provide parents with every possible support because, as the Minister of State and I are well aware, early intervention is critical.