Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, for coming to the Chamber. I am asking my question today from a place of utter frustration. We are all only too aware that there is massive under-resourcing and understaffing in our disability and mental health services at the moment. The northside of Dublin has the longest waiting periods in the country for an initial assessment. It is second only to Cork in terms of the waiting times for speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and psychology services. That, of course, has a worrying impact on children and their families, but it also has a knock-on impact on the education system. In the context of that shocking shortage of service, what is the Department of Education doing to respond to and cope with that situation? I do not believe it is good enough to stand back and say it is a problem for the HSE or the Department of Health because it is also a problem for the Department of Education.

I will tell the Minister of State about a 13-year-old boy named Tristan Shannon from Drumcondra. Tristan has multiple challenges. He has autism, ADHD and speech and language difficulties. He has attended local health services, first Summerhill and now the Central Remedial Clinic, CRC, since he was a small boy. With the support of his parents and his school, Scoil Chiaráin, he is going to make the transition to secondary school this September. It is a fantastic achievement for him. The effort to find that place last year was not without a lot of heartache but the family did eventually find that place. The family is now facing a fresh hurdle. They are trying to secure the necessary assistive technology for Tristan to be able to participate fully in school. In the parlance of the Department, he needs to be able to access the school curriculum. When we think about it, that should be a fairly basic request. There is a crazy situation whereby to get the assistive technology he requires, there must be reports generated within the children's disability network team, CDNT, either by a psychologist or an occupational therapist who, in turn, sends that report to the special educational needs organiser, SENO, who, in turn, sends it to the Department of Education. Because the local CDNT, the CRC, does not have the resources or wherewithal to produce that report, Tristan is being prevented from securing the assistive technology he very much needs.

We have engaged with the HSE locally about this issue. Its response is either to get the report done privately or to get a resource teacher within his school to conduct what is called a detailed assessment of speed of handwriting, DASH. The school could go away and spend a few hundred euro to get the software to conduct the test, but who is going to complete the report? Circular No. 0010/2013 clearly stipulates that the report must come from a relevant professional, such as an educational psychologist, occupational therapist or speech and language therapist.

There is a logjam here. What is the Department of Education going to do? We know there are horrendous resourcing issues within the system. There are thousands of children looking to access services. Indeed, Tristan himself has been waiting for many months for the services he needs from the CRC. My question for the Minister of State regards the basic issue of assistive technology.To be honest, that issue should be easily fixable. Tristan has made enormous progress in his life. He started off in an autism class and made the transition to a mainstream class, albeit with an adapted curriculum. He has made great progress, however. We need this child to be able to go on and thrive within a secondary school. It is simply not good enough. It is simply unacceptable that this small issue of securing the assistive technology is held up because the health services cannot produce a report. I look forward to hearing the Minister of State's response today.