Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am very proud to be a cosignatory of the Bill. I thank Senator Clonan for asking us to cosign it. I also thank him for his continued advocacy for disability services and people with disabilities, and all the services they should be entitled to access. It is something I deal with daily, be it in the area of transport, education or housing provision or in access to healthcare.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. She will not be surprised when I again bring up the assessment of need. It is something I have discussed with her in this Chamber as a Commencement matter and on Second Stage of this Bill and I will use this opportunity to raise it again.

Section 1(2) refers to the amendment of section 12A of the Disability Act, which outlines that it is the duty of the Minister to make resources available as part of this Bill. It states:

The Minister shall with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, provide such moneys and other resources as are determined by him or her for the purposes of the preparation and implementation of assessment reports prepared in respect of a person with a disability.

The Minister of State will be aware, as Senator Higgins mentioned, of the large number of families who are waiting on assessments of need for their loved ones. It now stands at almost 9,000. She will also be aware that in my area, CHO 7, the figure is the highest in the country, at well over 2,000 families and their loved ones. That is what this Bill is all about.

I just want to read a letter I got from a family about their loved one. I raised this with the Minister of State previously, including at the autism committee.I refer to the assessment of need as the piece of paper. I have been told time and again that an assessment of need is not needed to access health services or any service that should be provided. However, this letter from a GP was sent to me yesterday. It states:

The above child is under the care and treatment of CAMHS. She is currently awaiting a full assessment of need in view of ASD. The delay in diagnosis is contributing to a possible delay in treatment. See letter attached.

The attached letters - I will not go into them all - detail the treatment this young child is not getting because she has not had an assessment of need. It is in black and white. That is one of a number of letters I have received over a long period. With one voice we tell these families they do not need an assessment of need to access services, yet GPs and consultants are saying they do need one.

Time and again, when I raised this matter, the Minister of State challenged the HSE on it. I refer her to a debate in the Dáil last August on a Labour Party motion on autism. The Minister of State publicly said she would support the use of public money to allow people to access assessments of need. Where does that stand today? From responses to recent parliamentary questions we have seen, it seems we are still not up and running with the use of public moneys to allow people to get the assessment of need their families need. It is also coming out loud and clear that the six regional centres the Minister of State promised on the day of the debate are up and running but at different levels at this stage. We need a push.

This is what Senator Clonan's Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023 is about. Families contact me day in and day out, as I am sure they contact the Minister of State's office. I have been in contact with her office time and again about families in Kildare who come to me crying and say their loved ones are not getting services because they are being asked for an assessment of need. Will the Minister give an update on those six regional hubs? Where are they? There seems to be differences between each of the regional hubs. The one in CHO 7, in my region, does not seem to be up to speed with some of the others because the wait for an assessment of need is getting longer.

People come back to say no money is available for an assessment of need. I can send them on to the Minister of State's office, as I have done in recent weeks and months but that is the bottom line. I appreciate the Minister of State may say it is not true, but I can send her the letters. I put on record that it is what is being said to people.

Unfortunately, the Minister of State was not available to respond the previous time I raised a Commencement matter, and I accept that. When I read out a letter the last time, that is the reply I got about assessments of need. That is what I am getting, and it is why this Bill is so important. We need resources for these families. I support the Minister of State, the Government and, most important, the families and their loved ones who need an assessment of need. The Government needs to act now.