Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a serious issue that impacts on all of us. Last week I spoke of the harm being done to children in the Republic through domestic violence. One child an hour experiences domestic violence. That is somewhat beyond our control, but what is in our control is the harm being done to children with disabilities throughout the State. The numbers are extremely alarming. Some 48,000 children are waiting on physiotherapy, more than 10,000 of whom are waiting for more than a year for an appointment, not even for meaningful physio intervention. Some 21,000 children are waiting for an occupational therapy appointment, with 10,000 waiting for more than a year. Some 16,000 children are waiting for speech and language therapy. Again, 10,000 are waiting more than a year.

For those children that wait is time that cannot be revisited. The interventions must be timely. The damage done to children on those waiting lists is life altering and life limiting. I have experienced that myself. I have seen the deterioration in my own son, which is irreversible. We are actively harming children by not providing them with the timely and necessary interventions that would be expected in a country in the European Union, in the so-called developed world.

There is a similar situation for children waiting on psychological assessments. Some 2,000 have been waiting for more than one year for their initial appointment. The child and adolescent mental health service, CAMHS, has a similar issue. The scandal we became aware of in the Kerry service is replicated throughout the Republic. Most of the 73 CAMHS teams are understaffed.

We do not have psychiatric nurses, community engagement teams or psychiatrists, including those with higher specialist training. They will not work here. The problem is not with physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, nurses or any of the clinical or front-line medical staff but with the very highly remunerated management of the HSE and the people in the Department of Health who are failing our children in this regard.

There are 250,000 people awaiting community services. To put the children's figures in context, 42,000 children went through our industrial schools. That is a scandal of the ages that impacts on the history of this Republic. There were 60,000 mothers in the mother and baby homes. We are talking about a much larger number of children with disabilities who are being hurt right now. This is the scandal of today.

I would say to all the Senators and especially those in Government parties, when they go to their parliamentary party meetings tonight, they should talk to their leaders. There is no coming back from this scandal, the hurting of children and the harm being done to them. We must intervene. I am aware that no risk assessment has been carried out in the implementation of the progressing disabilities services, PDS, programme.The waiting lists to which I referred are increasing exponentially in every three-month period. The numbers on them are going up by thousands. We are in a state of failure in this regard. Notwithstanding the other challenges that confront us, this is something we must address. The Catholic Church and other institutions could tell us that when we are aware of but do not act on a harm being done to children, there is no coming back from that for any political party, cultural institution or any other organisation in our Republic.

We need a very robust debate on the harm that is being done to children as a result of these waiting lists. I have personal experience of it and it is being replicated in hundreds of thousands of households throughout the State. We must act to address it.