Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House for this very important Commencement matter. I thank him for being here, because it is in his Department. I would like to acknowledge the good work he is doing as Minister of State in the Department of Health.

I tabled this Commencement matter on foot of the retirement of Dr. Victor O’Loughlin from his post as a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist for children with disabilities. There has been no replacement found for this role. We now have children in the south east of Ireland waiting indefinitely for psychiatric assessment because we do not have any psychiatrist. Under the Disability Act, a child is entitled to have an assessment of needs completed within six months, including a service statement that lists the services the HSE proposes to provide to meet a child’s needs. However, this is not happening.

I would like to mention two examples of families and parents who are at their wits' end because of the lack of services within the HSE. The first one is Mark Darmody, who is from my parish of Ardfinnan-Grange. He stated:

Our son Neil ... is severely autistic and was diagnosed with autism in 2016. He was reassessed in 2018, but his development has been almost non-existent. The severity of his presentation is now obvious as he is 100% non-verbal, has almost no comprehension, is not toilet-trained and is sporadically violent towards himself and others. We had been urging the HSE to intervene from early 2019 onwards as it was clear to us that Neil's diagnosis with a mild intellectual disability was not accurate for his presentation.

In February 2020, as a result of a referral ... Neil was examined by Dr. Victor O'Loughlin... on behalf of the HSE. He emphatically stated by letter ... that Neil was in the severe range of intellectual incapacity and that he required reassessment "as a priority" before [psychiatric services] could be considered. This urgent letter was sent to three HSE managers.

On the 29th June 2022, as a result of substantial pressure from us as parents, we received a letter of apology from ... [the] disability manager in Clonmel. She stated that the letter of Dr. O'Loughlin was never actioned [on] and she speculated that she could only conclude that Covid must have been the reason. What is certain is that our son was never considered for assessment ... during that time period.

This situation is now [exacerbated] by a telephone call I [received from] the HSE services manager in Clonmel... who informed me that Neil would now sit on a waiting list "indefinitely." Despite my requests for an approximate indication of when he [would] be seen, she continued with her "indefinitely" statement. She also informed me that there is no psychiatrist presently recruited by the HSE in the south east of Ireland.

His wife, Noelle, is now attempting to source private therapies that could cost up to €9,000 for the entirety of the type of service that Neil requires.

There is another lady in Clonmel and I do not have permission to use her name, so I will not. She is at her wits' end as well. Her boy needs to be assessed in order to be on the correct medication to ease his constant frustrations. He constantly stims, so he is always shouting, hitting and breaking things in sheer frustration. He even does it in his sleep. His parents are reducing their working hours to ensure that someone is always there. I will read out part of what she said to outline the frustration that she feels. She stated:

Our home is now and has been at complete crisis point for a long time which ye are [well] aware of since our last emergency professionals meeting a number of months ago. I would like to point out that our ability to cope is beyond that of the norm, however the current situation outweighs any degree of coping. Simply put “the demands are too high and the professional expertise is non-existent which is contributing to the bleakness of the present and future of our beautiful boy and family”. We have no support, we are at a point of total burnout and it has fallen on deaf ears. There are currently so many acute and enduring issues in our home that we do not know where to turn.

Those are families who are struggling immensely because of the lack of services in the south-east region. It needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.