Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending take this Commencement matter. I have always been a passionate advocate for people with disabilities. I firmly believe that society has a responsibility to ensure every person is supported to reach his or her full potential. As legislators, we have even more of responsibility in that regard.

The Fianna Fáil Party stood before the people at the previous two general elections on a manifesto of An Ireland for All. People with disabilities deserve the same opportunities and have absolutely the same right to reach their full potential as any other member of society. We need to deliver for them and we are failing them badly. Access to adequate and appropriate medical and therapeutic supports is a vital necessity for many people living with disabilities. Without adequate access many people will simply not achieve their potential. We all know the importance of all early intervention in helping children learn the very basic skills many take for granted, such as crawling, walking and speaking. The first four years of life are so important and when children do not automatically develop those skills, they need help and support through State intervention to ensure they do. There is nothing more heartwarming than a parent or a sibling seeing a child taking a step or putting a few words together for the first time. In my experience families will go to the ends of the earth to do what they can but they cannot do it alone. They need help and support and they must be provided by the State.

I am regularly contacted by people in my area of south Kildare who have been waiting up to 18 months to gain access to the Kildare and West Wicklow children's disability network team, CDNT. These delays are detrimental to the development of children in our area and often cause serious stress and strain for families. We talk about a postcode lottery.The CDNT of area 11, which takes in Kildare, is the Cinderella in this regard.

I am dealing with one case of a local child due to start primary school in September. Let us call the child John. John's mother noticed as early as his first birthday that he was missing milestones, was concerned about this and raised the matter with her doctor. Due to Covid-19, nothing was done. She continued to monitor him and raised the red flag periodically. It was only when she was in with her doctor for a routine pregnancy check-up on her next child that she mentioned it again. At that point John was referred to a new paediatric doctor. The child was accepted by the CDNT but there is currently an 18-month waiting list. In subsequent conversations with the staff on the CDNT, however, who bear no fault in this scenario and are going over and above their duties in supporting families, the mother was informed there is no guarantee the child would be accepted.

To this day, at more than four years old, John is still non-verbal. He has had no proper assessment or help. He is to enter his second year of preschool in September and his family will need to begin the process of primary school applications from October 2022. His mother has been informed he will not be accepted in mainstream classes if he is non-verbal and she cannot apply for a school place in an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, class without a full report to state he requires it.

What is John or his mother meant to do? This is not an isolated case and I have plenty of other examples. We must tackle the problem and I ask the Minister of State what he can do to help ease this pressure and support people with disabilities.